Darkness Times
by xxiCarlyFanxx
Summary: The shadows from the past of the Puckett family come back for revenge, and the life of everyone around them changes completely. Seddie, The Vampire Diaries Style.
1. Chapter 1: An Unfortunate Visitor

**Author's Note: Hey people! First of all, Happy New Year! :D :D**

**Okay, don't look at me like that! I know what you might be thinking right now: 'Another fic? You haven't even finished your other ones yet!'. Don't worry, I'll finish iKnow it, and so does everybody, iSpeak Sleeping and iSpeed Date Seddie Style before continuing to post this fic, I just couldn't stop myself from posting the first chapter for you. :D**

**Anyway, I've been kind of obsessed with this story lately, and I wanted you guys' opinion on it. But it will take a while for me to upload the next chapters, because as I've already said, I want to finish those three other stories first. But well, they are all in the last few chapters, so it probably won't take me **_**that**_** long...**

**Okay, back to the point. The first three chapters will probably be way longer than the others, because those three are kind of... the prologue of the story? Yeah, they're kind of the prologue... :)**

**Anyway, like I've already said in the story summary, this is a Seddie story (even though there's no Seddie in the first chapter), but a bit different... :) I've been a bit obsessed with The Vampire Diaries (the TV Series), and that's where I got the inspiration to write this from. :)**

**Okay, let's go on with what's important!**

**Note: I know that the American way to write 'Jorge' is 'George', but 'Jorge' is actually the Brazilian way to spell 'George', and I kind of prefer to write it with a 'J'. I hope you guys don't mind... :)**

**Another Note: I have absolutely no idea how much time it takes to fly from Seattle to Jacksonville on a plane, so I guessed three hours (it might be a little more than that, but anyway...), so I'm sorry if it's too much more than that! :)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own iCarly, or The Vampire Diaries.**

**Warning: When I said The Vampire Diaries style, I also meant The Vampire Diaries level, and that means there are some scenes with death and violence.**

**And now... Enjoy! :)**

* * *

Darkness Times

Prologue

_For many people, death means the end. But for some, it's only the beginning of everything._

Chapter 1: An Unfortunate Visitor

**Pam & Jorge Puckett**

It was a clear and beautiful night, and Pamela Puckett had decided to stay home that day. Her daughter, Sam Puckett, now eighteen years old, would be back from Carly Shay's apartment soon. It was winter break time, and Christmas was only eight days away, but in three weeks, Sam would be back to California, where she was studying in college. Melanie would also go home for Christmas break, but only two days later, since she had some plans with her friends and wouldn't be free until then.

The doorbell rang.

_Did Sam forget her keys again? _Pam wondered impatiently. Sam, during all the years she had lived in that house, must have forgotten her keys over five hundred times. Pam got up from the couch she had been lying on slowly and lazily, wondering why she couldn't have had a more responsible daughter, just like Melanie. She walked toward the front door calmly, but when she opened the door, she froze, her eyes widening slightly for a second, but she soon managed to hide her shock. There, standing just outside her front door on the front porch, was the man she had wished she'd never see again.

She had met Tyler a few days ago and they had started going out, even though he could not be much older than twenty years old. His young age was not a problem, though, for Pam had never really cared about dating guys that were considerably younger or older than herself. Everything had been fine between them for a few days, until Pam found out something about him—a very dark secret of his—and because of that secret, she had dumped him after a really long fight between the two of them. She wasn't scared of him and his empty threats, but she had to admit that she hadn't expected him to really go after her, and that made her a bit nervous. But not scared. No, not at all. She was a Puckett, after all.

"What are you doing here?" Pam asked the dark figure standing right in front of her harshly.

Tyler seemed completely unaffected by the harsh tone of her voice. "I really don't think the way you treated me the last time we met was really… polite, you know?" he replied calmly, a very subtle smirk threatening to break out on his lips.

"Well, that's the opinion of a bloodsucker," she shot back at him, glaring at him as she spoke. Yes, she really meant bloodsucker, for Tyler was a vampire, and that was precisely the reason why she had dumped him.

"Pam, why don't you invite me inside, so we can talk about what happened?" he asked, smiling a bit, as though trying to make her calm and convince her to do what he was saying, and she tried not to stare at his bright white teeth.

"I'm not gonna—" Pam started, but he cut her off.

_"Pam, invite me in,"_ Tyler said, looking deep into her eyes.

Pamela didn't know why, but she did what he said. It was like she didn't have control over herself for a few seconds after she looked right into those dark green eyes. She felt as if she was in some kind of trance as her body seemed to act on its own.

Once Tyler was inside, he closed the front door shut behind him and took a few steps toward the living room, and when he was in the center of the room, he paused, before turning around slowly. His eyes had a dark expression in them, which sent a chill down Pam's spine.

It took Pam a few seconds to come back to her right mind, and when she did, she instantly realized what she had just done.

"What do you think you're going to do? Kill me?" Pam asked, challenging him.

"No, I'm not gonna kill you." He made a short pause. "It's pretty easy to turn someone into a vampire, you know?" Tyler added, staring at her intensely.

Pam stood completely still. Had she heard him right? "Wha… You want to turn me into a vampire?" she asked in disbelief.

Tyler chuckled lowly. "No, I'm not gonna turn you," he said, sounding as though that was the most obvious thing in the world, and a smirk formed on his lips as he added, "I'll have the pleasure of turning your daughters into vampires."

Pam froze. Now she was scared. She couldn't imagine why he wanted to involve her daughters in any of that. "You don't even know who they are," she told him, doing her best to sound confident about what she was saying. "I've never told you their names or anything at all about them."

Tyler chuckled once again. "Do you really think it was difficult for me to find out that you have two daughters, Samantha, who's studying in California, and Melanie, who's studying in Florida, and that they're identical twins? And also that Samantha is here in Seattle right now for winter break and Melanie isn't, but will be in two days?"

Now Pam really started to panic, though she did her best not to let it show. She would not allow herself to look weak or scared, no matter what he said. _How did he find out all that stuff? _she couldn't help but wonder.

"You won't lay one finger on them!" Pam exclaimed, and she sounded desperate even to herself, a fact that annoyed her greatly.

"We'll see…" Tyler trailed off, before pausing, his brows furrowing just slightly for a moment as he turned his head to the side just slightly, as though something had suddenly caught his attention. "Oh, look who just arrived home," he said, a smirk suddenly forming on his lips. The vampire suddenly sprung forward in a blur, and barely a second later, Pam felt a sharp pain in her right leg. She fell down helplessly on the hard wooden floor as her leg gave away to her weight right under her, and when she looked back up, she realized there was no sight of Tyler in the living room anymore. She gritted her teeth tightly together as she tried to stop herself from screaming due to the sharp pain that shot through her leg, realizing that Tyler had probably broken it.

And before anything else could be said or done, the front door was pushed open slowly and Sam walked inside the house.

The moment Pam saw the blonde, she felt as though a bucket of icy cold water had been thrown over her, and she suddenly found herself unable to move an inch.

_She needs to get out of here!_ Pam thought, desperate. Even though Sam and her mother had practically hated each other for over sixteen years, now everything was fine between the two of them, especially after that whole therapy incident with Carly, and now they were finally starting to act a bit more like mother and daughter. She couldn't lose Sam.

"Mom? What are you doing on the floor?" Sam asked curiously as she dropped her purse and jacket on the couch.

"Oh, nothing… I was just…" Pam had hoped that Tyler would have gone away by now, but she soon realized she had been foolish to have even allowed that possibility to cross her mind. He wouldn't give up that easily. The only thing Pam saw was a blur, and in less than a second, the scene playing right in front of her eyes had changed completely.

Tyler had one arm wrapped around Sam's neck and the other one wrapped around her waist, holding her in place from behind. The blonde girl tried to break free from his grasp, but he was unbelievably stronger than her, and the more she tried break out of his iron grip, the more she realized that she wouldn't be able to break free.

"Who the hell are you?" Sam yelled, but the black haired man simply ignored her.

"Let go of her!" Pam yelled. She needed to stop Tyler, but when she tried to get up from the floor, she realized that she couldn't stand for more than two seconds before falling back down onto the hard floor because of her broken leg. "I mean it, Tyler! I won't let you lay one finger on her, and if you even think that you're gonna hurt her, I swear I'll—" She was cut off by Tyler, who now spoke in a low voice, which only made him sound even more maniac than he had already sounded since the moment he had first arrived at the house.

"Is that supposed to be a threat?" he asked, laughing lightly. "Do you really think you can do anything against me?" He seemed to be really amused, which made Pam even more furious than she already was. "Now, back to the main point here," he started in a calm and ridiculously annoying voice. "The first step is not my favorite part, but I still like it." A malicious smile played on his lips as he spoke, and Pam wanted nothing more than to just rip that right off his face.

Tyler slowly brought the arm that had been firmly wrapped around Sam's waist up until his wrist was directly in front of his mouth. Sam tried to break free once again, but she failed once more. It was unbelievable how that man could still hold her that way with only one arm.

The next thing Pam saw made her almost pass out. The white part of Tyler's eyes suddenly earned a red color as dark veins became visible against his skin in the area just below his eyes, a sight shocking enough to cause Pam's breath to shake. Tyler bit his wrist without hesitation using his fangs, which had grown suddenly, before lowering his wrist slowly to press it against Sam's lips. She protested, but when he tightened his grip on her neck, making her open her mouth slightly to be able to breathe in more air and try not to suffocate, he got his chance and pressed his wrist against her lips with more strength, making it impossible for her to close her mouth or stop the hot liquid coming out of his skin from going down her throat.

"Tyler, stop it!" Pam yelled and tried to stand up once again, but with no success. She couldn't just sit there and wait for the scene to go on, but she had no other choice.

After a few seconds, Tyler finally pulled his wrist off Sam's mouth, and she coughed a little bit. She could still taste the blood in her mouth, but she could do nothing about it. Pam felt a bit of repulse as she briefly thought about what Sam had just gone through, but that feeling instantly vanished when she realized what was about to happen.

"Now, my favorite part," Tyler said, still smiling, before slowly resting both his hands on each side of Sam's head. Sam was still trying to break free from the man's grasp, but she just couldn't. He was too strong.

"Let go of me!" Sam managed to yell, but yet again, he ignored her.

"Tyler, please! Don't do this!" Pam begged him for the last time, even though deep down she knew it was useless. "She doesn't have anything to do with this! I'm sorry for what I said! Please, stop!"

"If you haven't realized it yet, Pamela, this is not only about you and your horrible way of treating other people. I had planned this way before I met you…" Tyler said, but Pam couldn't understand what he could possibly mean by that. However, she did not put too much thought into it, for she had something far more important to worry about in that moment.

The next scene would, for sure, never leave Pam's mind.

Tyler leaned in slowly, until his lips were almost tickling Sam's right ear. He could hear that she was breathing heavily and that her heart was racing like crazy inside her chest, the smell of her fear emanating from her skin to reach his nostrils. When he noticed that, he couldn't help but smile, before whispering something into her ear. And even though Pam was lying on the floor, she was still able to hear the three words he whispered to Sam.

"Welcome to death."

For a brief moment, Pam saw fear in her daughter's eyes, but with one flick movement, Sam's neck was turned roughly to the left, and the horrible sound of it breaking filled the air for a second.

"NO!" Pam screamed as she watched Sam's lifeless body fall down flatly on the hard floor right in front of her, and for the first time in years, she felt hot tears rolling down her cheeks. In no time at all, she was sobbing uncontrollably, unable to stop the constant flow of tears emerging from her eyes and making their way down her face.

Tyler simply watched her for a moment, his face completely emotionless, not one single hint of regret or even pity in his cold eyes. "If you still haven't figured out why I did this, just ask your ex-husband. Maybe he remembers it." Tyler made a short pause, as if to let his words sink in. "Anyway, this is only half of it all, because in about twenty minutes I'll be on a plane to Jacksonville, where I'll have a little… conversation with Melanie." With that, he made his way past Pam and her daughter's lifeless form, before exiting the house through the front door without a single glance behind.

Pam didn't move for a long time. She just cried, staring blankly at the front door, which Tyler had closed behind himself when he left. It was like she was frozen; like she was in such a state of shock that her brain seemed to have ceased functioning for a moment, but that numbness wore off a few minutes later and she finally made herself come back to Earth.

Pam dragged herself with her arms and good leg until she was sitting right next to Sam. It took her some time, but when she finally got there, she started to cry even harder than before. Seeing her daughter like that made the situation even more real, since she honestly felt as though everything that had happened since Tyler's arrival at that house had been some sort of terrible nightmare, and that she would wake up from it at any second and everything would go back to normal. But deep down, she knew that wouldn't happen.

In an effort to find a hint that Sam could still be alive, even though she already knew it was impossible, she tried to find a pulse as she held Sam's wrist in her shaky hands. Nothing. She tried in the girl's neck by pressing two fingers against the spot on Sam's throat where she would have been able to feel her pulse. Nothing. Pam gripped tightly onto her last spark of hope as she pressed her right ear against Sam's chest, trying to hear a heartbeat, her hand pressed against the girl's chest just in case she might feel her heart beating against her palm, but she heard and felt nothing. And that was when everything sunk in.

Sam was dead, and there was nothing she could do to change that.

That single thought echoed inside her head several times, though its meaning just refused to fully register in her brain. It was just too surreal; it just could not be true. Her mind just did not seem capable of truly accepting that fact, no matter how many times the moment Tyler broke Sam's neck repeated itself in her head.

But that moment was also when she realized something—she could still save Melanie. After several minutes of dragging herself toward the small table by the wall where the phone was set, she was finally able to dial Melanie's phone number. It rang once, twice, thrice; but Melanie just refused pick up the call.

_Come on, Melanie, just pick up the damn cell phone!_ Pam screamed inside her mind, but Melanie still wouldn't answer the phone. Pam tried once again. And again. And again. But every time she tried, she met with no success. She looked down at her watch and realized that Tyler had left the house over an hour ago, which meant that in less than two hours, he'd be in Jacksonville. And in that moment, everything would be lost.

As that thought crossed her mind, Pam finally made a decision_—_she needed help, no matter how much she wanted to deny it. She had never been the one to admit weakness or to accept help from anyone, but she knew it was necessary at that moment. Desperate times asked for drastic measures, that being the reason why she soon found herself calling the person whom she hadn't talked to in years, and whose voice she had once thought she'd never hear again.

Jorge Puckett, Pam's ex-husband and the twins' father, was the chief of the Seattle police, but he was also a vampire hunter. It was because of him that Pam had first found out about the existence of those creatures, and it was also with him that she had learned to hate them. They had gotten divorced several years ago, but the cause of their separation had nothing to do with supernatural; they just didn't work out very well.

After the night he left, Pam had never talked to him again, so it was completely normal for her to be nervous. The phone rang just once, and a childish-like sounding voice answered the call.

_"Seattle Police Department, how can I help you?"_ The secretary sounded like she'd rather die than be where she was right now, but Pam ignored her.

"I need to talk to Officer Jorge Puckett," she said hurriedly.

_"He's not available at the moment. If you'd like to leave a message, he'll return the call later—"_ She was cut off by a really irritated Pam.

"Listen, this is his ex-wife, and it's a life-death situation. Actually, more like a death situation, so you'll take this phone and tell Jorge that I need to talk to him right now or else I'm gonna go over there and make you swallow the phone along with your teeth, and I can assure you that this is not an empty threat and that I will do it," she told the girl, her patience long since gone.

The line was silent for a moment, until the secretary's voice was finally audible once again on the other side of the line. _"He'll talk to you in a minute," _she said, and in just a matter of seconds, Pam heard the sound of the call being transferred. It took only a minute, but that minute seemed more like an eternity to Pam.

_"Pamela," _Pam heard a man's voice saying jokingly, "_I really wasn't expecting to hear your voice any time soon, you know?_"

"Jorge, this is no time for jokes! You know I wouldn't call you if it wasn't serious," she hurried to say, not willing to waste one single second, for she knew her second daughter's life was hanging by a thread.

_"Yeah, I don't know why I thought that you could possibly be calling me just to say 'hi',"_ he admitted with a tired sigh._ "Now, what's the problem?"_

Pam had to use all the courage she had gathered up until then to speak again. She took a deep breath in a failing effort to try to calm herself down, before finally saying, "It's about our daughters, Jorge."

_"What about them?"_ he asked curiously, since Pam had always tried to make him keep the biggest distance she could provide from the two girls.

That was exactly the question Pam had been more nervous to answer, for she was not sure how many more times she could replay the scene of Sam's death inside her head before she had another mental breakdown. She took one more deep breath, before blurting the whole story out at once. Since her date with Tyler, how she found out he was a vampire and how he had showed up that night, possibly turned Sam into a vampire and how he was planning on turning Melanie as well.

"And now, he's probably almost in Jacksonville, and he wants to turn Melanie too. I tried to call her, but she won't answer her phone, and I don't know what to do! So the first person I could think of was you, and—"

Jorge could hear in her voice that she was crying, which made him realize it was time to make her pause and try calm down, even if he found it difficult for himself to stay calm. _"Pam, what did he do to Sam… exactly?"_ he asked, and it hurt every word that left his mouth. He was sure he didn't want to hear what Pam was about to say, but he knew he needed to.

"Well... first he... cut his wrist and... then... he made her drink a little bit of his blood... and... and then... he... he... he broke her neck," she said, her voice breaking at almost every word because of her sobbing.

Jorge had no words to describe how he was feeling in that moment. It seemed like someone had just stabbed him right in the stomach, and he, for the first time in his life, felt like he was about to pass out._ "He... he really turned her..." _He made a short pause as he tried to process what he had just heard._ "Where is she right now?"_

"She's here on the floor... still knocked out," Pam answered slowly, glancing briefly at Sam's unmoving form, before moving her gaze away, for the sight was still too much for her to handle.

Jorge thought for a moment. Sam would wake up soon, and even if he didn't want to admit it, there wasn't anything possible he could do to save Melanie from the same fate Sam had met. From what Pam had told him, Tyler would probably be in Jacksonville in less than an hour, and even if they got to Melanie's dormitory faster than he did, maybe they wouldn't be able to stop him, and more people would die because of it. But in spite of all that, he knew he had to try. Melanie was his daughter, after all.

_"Pam, listen to me,"_ Jorge began, his voice earning a calm and serious tone, even though he was feeling the exact opposite way inside._ "Keep trying to contact Melanie. I'm gonna send some of my agents to Jacksonville and try to stop Tyler. If Sam wakes up, don't let her leave the house. I'll be there as soon as possible."_ And with that, he hung up.

Pam kept staring off into space for about a minute until Jorge's words finally sunk in, and when that finally happened, she hurried to dial Melanie's number into the phone she was still holding in her shaky hands. And once again, her daughter didn't answer the phone. She sighed, but kept trying for several more minutes, until she heard the doorbell ringing.

_"Pam, it's me! Jorge!"_ said a familiar voice calling from outside the front door.

"It's open!" Pam replied, knowing that she wouldn't be able to get up to open the door herself because of her broken leg.

When Jorge entered the house, he realized that the scene right in front of his eyes was even worse than he had imagined. Pam was sitting on the floor, her leg lying on a strange and not normal angle, though that was not what really caught his attention, for his eyes soon found Sam. He had tried not to picture her until that moment, and seeing her lifeless form lying on the floor made it all even more real. That terrible sight made him realize that this wasn't a nightmare that he could just wake up from and everything would be back to normal.

Without a word, Jorge slowly made his way over to where Sam's body lay, only to kneel down right beside her. He eyed her for a moment, refusing to believe the image his eyes insisted on conjuring inside his head was in fact real.

Sam's eyes were closed, her face calm and peaceful. Anyone would have thought she was asleep if it wasn't for the fact that her chest refused to move, as it would if she were breathing, and that her neck seemed to be bent on a very awkward and unnatural angle, giving away the fact that it was broken, as well as that her life had been taken away from her so abruptly. Slowly and hesitantly, Jorge lifted his right hand and caressed the girl's cheek with the back of his hand, feeling the unnusual coldness of her skin against his own.

Jorge's eyes began to water as the truth finally seemed to dawn upon him, no matter how painful it was. Sam was dead. She was _dead. _And that wasn't all, even though Jorge for some reason refused to allow himself to think about what would happen when she woke up again.

He had no words to describe how he was feeling in that moment. He had never hated vampires so much in his life, and the happenings of that night made the memories from what had happened five years ago suddenly come back to him, flooding his mind and only intensifying his pain.

_He was working late that night and was called to help on a case of someone who had heard strange noises outside their house. He was not yet chief, so this sort of work was not entirely rare for him. He just didn't know his life would change forever that night._

_There were four dark figures lying on the ground in the middle of the deserted street when he got to the adress he had been called to, all of them dead. But that wasn't the worst part of it all. When he walked up to Officer Charles, he finally understood what had happened, and he doubted every word he heard until he saw one of the corpses. The young man, who couldn't have been older than eighteen years old, had his jugular completely ripped open, and his neck and shirt were both completely stained with dry blood._

_In the seconds that followed that horrible vision, he was told that his son, Ryan, 17, had been one of the victims of the beast that had killed four teenagers, and that the thing that had killed them had gotten away. That was the biggest shock of his entire life, and that was the first time he had cried in over ten years._

_Since that night, he had hated vampires more than any other thing in the world, and he did everything he could to kill as many of them as he could. And the first one he'd killed had been precisely the one that had killed his son._

Forcing himself to tear his gaze away from Sam, Jorge then hurried to make his way up to where Pamela was after coming back to reality. He helped her stand up, letting her completely support herself on him, and thanks to his help, she was finally able to sit down on the couch. He then walked to the kitchen, avoiding the sight of Sam lying dead on the floor at all costs, and got Pam a cup of water.

She drank it down slowly, and just then she realized that she was shaking badly.

"What happened to your leg?" Jorge asked once she was done with the cup and had handed it to him so he could place it on the coffee table.

It took Pam a few seconds to respond, as though speaking had suddenly become difficult for her. "Tyler broke it," she finally said.

Jorge was about to say something, when the sound of his phone ringing suddenly filled the air, and he hurried to answer it as he stood up from the couch.

"Officer Puckett talking," Jorge spoke into the phone, his voice suddenly earning a serious and professional low tone.

_"Boss, we've got a problem. The University doesn't want to allow our entrance without the permission of the local chief, but the local chief won't give us the permission we need because he doubts what I told him,"_ Jorge heard agent Steven say on the other end of the phone line. He felt extremely lucky that Steven and Paul, another agent of his, had been near Jacksonville with their families because some agents had gone on a break from work due to Christmas, and that they had agreed to try to solve the situation, since Jorge couldn't do it himself.

Jorge sighed, for he had feared something of that sort might happen. He gave Steven a few more instructions that might be enough to convince the local chief to allow his men inside the University, before hanging up, his hope that he would actually be able to save Melanie's life growing smaller with every passing minute.

Pam realized by the look on Jorge's face when he sat back down on the couch that what he had heard on the phone a few seconds ago wasn't good news.

"What happened?" she asked, fearing what she'd hear next.

"Melanie's University won't let us in, unless we get the local chief's permission," Jorge replied lowly.

"Oh, God... Well, but at least Tyler won't get in," Pam said, trying to see a good point in their current situation.

"Unfortunately, I can't agree with that," he told her with a sigh. "He's a vampire, Pam. We can't stop them that easily."

Pam knew she could not argue with that, a realization that only amplified her panic. "What are we gonna do? Tyler must be there in Jacksonville by now, if he's not inside the University already! And here we are—" She was interrupted by the sound of her phone ringing loudly. She pressed the button to accept the call and brought the phone up to her ear with a shaky hand, not even looking at the screen to check the caller's ID.

"Hello?" Pam spoke into the phone.

_"Mom?"_ Pam heard a familiar voice on the other side of the line.

"Melanie?" _Oh, thank God, s_he thought, relieved that she could finally hear Melanie's voice. "Melanie, is everything okay?" she asked, sounding way more nervous than she meant to. She saw Jorge's curious expression and pressed another button on the phone, putting the call on speaker, since that way he'd be able to hear the whole conversation.

_"Uh... Yes, why wouldn't I be?"_ Melanie asked curiously, noticing her mother's nervous behavior.

"Oh... I was just... worried because you wouldn't answer the phone..." Pam didn't know what else to say, so she let her voice hang in the air.

_"I went out with some friends and forgot my phone in the dormitory. That wasn't really a reason to get so nervous and call me so many times,"_ Melanie said, amused. Her mother was acting pretty weird, but she decided not to say anything about it. _"But why did you call me in the first place?"_

Pam sighed. That was precisely the question she feared the most, but at the same time, the one she was hoping Melanie would ask. She didn't know what she'd say or how she would do it, but she knew that she had to get Melanie out of that place right now. "Melanie, listen to me," she began, her voice urgent. "You need to get out of the University right now, and I really mean right now." As she spoke, Pam couldn't help but hope that Melanie wouldn't ask any questions about her weird request, which, unfortunately, didn't happen.

_"Uh... What?"_ Melanie asked, thinking that she probably hadn't heard it right.

"You need to get out of there, Melanie! I mean it!" Pam repeated, her voice growing more desperate at each word she spoke. The longer it took for Pam to convince her daughter to leave that place, the closer Tyler got to where the girl was.

_"But why—"_ Melanie stopped abruptly—too abruptly.

"Mel?" Pam asked once, but she got no response. "Mel?" Pam tried once again, a bit louder this time, but the response she got wasn't the girl's voice she was expecting to hear.

_"Isn't it cute how you're still trying to stop me?"_ an annoying and amused voice echoed on the other side of the phone line.

Pam felt a chill going down her spine at the sound, her heart suddenly speeding up. "Tyler," she whispered, his name coming out of her mouth like a curse, and both she and Jorge felt even more desperate than they already were.

_"Did it really cross your mind that you could possibly stop me, Pamela?"_ Tyler asked, and then laughed loudly, like he thought the current situation was absolutely hilarious.

Jorge decided to intervene, for he could see Pam was in no state to talk. "Well, you're not gonna get away with this," he said, his voice firm as he tried to sound a lot more confident than he truly was.

_"Who's that one?"_ Tyler's sounded surprised by the sudden sound of the unknown voice.

"I'm Officer Jorge Puckett, Chief of the Seattle Police, and—" Jorge didn't have the chance to finish that, for Tyler hurried to cut him off.

_"Wait, wait, wait,"_ the vampire said, a strange tone taking over his voice, though neither of the humans were able to identify the meaning behind that change._ "You're really Jorge Puckett? Like... the twins' father?"_

"Yes," Jorge said simply, not really understanding why that single fact was so interesting to Tyler.

Tyler started laughed once again._ "Oh, God, this is even better than how I had imagined it! Seriously, you have no idea..."_ He let the sentence hang in the air for a short moment.

"Where's Melanie?" Pam asked nervously. She hadn't heard Melanie's voice since the moment Tyler's voice was heard for the first time in the phone call.

_"She's enjoying her drink, if you get what I mean..."_ Tyler said, the meaning of his words as clear as crystal to both Pam and Jorge.

Pam felt even more desperate than before as she heard those words, for they made her realize that during that whole time, Tyler had been making Melanie drink his blood.

"Tyler, why don't we just calm down and talk things through before doing anything we'll regret later?" Jorge said in an effort to try to make Tyler give up on the idea of turning Melanie into a vampire too.

_"Do you really think I'm gonna regret doing this? If you really do, then you're extremely stupid,"_ Tyler told Jorge. _"And anyway, I gotta go now, so..."_

Jorge knew what Tyler was about to do, and so did Pam, but there was nothing the two of them could do to stop it, and they were both pretty much aware of that, even though they decided to ignore that knowledge as they insisted on trying to convince the vampire to stop and not take away Melanie's life, like he had done to Sam.

"Tyler, don't!" Jorge said, gripping tightly onto his last bit of hope that Tyler would somehow change his mind, even if he knew it was useless.

"Tyler, please, I'm begging you!" Pam screamed, and she started crying once again.

The sound of someone coughing was heard in the background of the phone call for a brief moment, until Tyler's ice-cold voice could be heard again.

_"It's too late now."_

A crack was heard on the other side of the line, and in that moment, both Pam and Jorge felt like they had just lost everything they had ever had in their lives. Pam started sobbing once again as a brand new wave of fresh tears began to fall, while Jorge somehow managed to control himself enough to speak again.

"You won't get away with this. Some of my agents are gonna be there at any moment now." Jorge tried to sound serious, but his voice was breaking at every word he said.

_"Really? Then how did I get away from them five years ago?"_ Tyler asked.

"What are you talking about?" Jorge asked, frowning at the vampire's words.

_"Why don't you ask your son?"_ Tyler asked, and then laughed once again, before hanging up.

The world stopped for a second in Jorge's mind. Everything was blank except for the fact he had just realized—Tyler was the vampire that had killed his son five years ago. But… What about the vampire woman Jorge had killed so much time ago? But that wasn't the main point in that moment; the point was that Tyler had killed both his daughters as well. The only clear thing in his mind in that moment was that he needed to kill that vampire, even if it was the last thing he'd do in his life.

Jorge's thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the sound of someone gasping loudly, which made Jorge and Pam quickly look around, only to spot Sam sitting up and gasping for air.

**Sam Puckett**

Sam felt weird.

Her head was throbbing and heavy, which made her feel as though she had one of the worst hangovers in history of time. As she sat up, a sharp pain shot through the back of her neck, and she found herself rubbing it in an effort to lessen down the stiffness of the muscles there, for it felt like a very strong cramp. Sam's vision kept going in and out of focus, and her eyes hurt due to the brightness of the room. She looked around and saw her mother sitting on the couch, though her image was not very clear thanks to the fogginess of her brain and unusually blurry vision. As she tried to make her vision go back to normal, she realized there was someone else in the room. But who... Was that her father?

_What is he doing here?_ she briefly wondered, rubbing her forehead with her palm as she tried to lessen down the throbbing, but with no success.

She stared up at the two, confused. "What... what happened? Why... why are you here, Dad?" Sam asked, her voice coming out weakly and hoarse, as though she hadn't talked for a long time.

Jorge shot Pam a serious look, trying to tell her to let him take care of that, which went unnoticed by the blonde girl. Sam probably couldn't remember what had happened. Actually, Jorge was surprised to learn that she even remembered who they were in the first place. He had always believed that when someone became a vampire, they would simply forget their previous life completely, but now he realized that he had been wrong to think that.

Jorge cleared his throat before speaking. "Uh, your mom called me... because a man broke into the house," he lied, hoping that she would believe it.

"But why am I on the floor?" she asked, still confused. Her head hurt for even trying to remember what had happened.

"He hit you in the head, and you were knocked out for some time," her father went on, and much to his relief, she believed his story and did not ask any more questions.

Sam tried to stand up, but she felt extremely dizzy, and she had to support herself on the nearby couch to finally be able to stand, the fact that she was wearing high-heeled boots not helping at all.

Jorge walked toward her slowly. He was extremely hesitant because he didn't know how she'd react to a human presence too close to her. He had never met a vampire in transition before, so how she'd behave was a complete mystery to him. His heart was racing as he watched her every move, and for a brief moment, he wondered if she could hear it. Did a vampire already have their senses heightened while still in transition? Jorge doubted it, but he could not be entirely sure.

"How are you feeling?" Jorge's voice was loud in Sam's ears; a lot louder than she would have judged normal.

"Can you just not talk so loudly, please?" she asked, her voice pleading. "My head hurts like hell," she added when she noticed the frown on her father's face. "I feel dizzy, and I must have blacked out with my neck in a very weird way, because it's really hurting as well." As if to confirm her words, she rubbed the back of her neck once again, but that did nothing to ease the pain she was feeling there.

Sam could not entirely undertand the emotions that crossed her father's face as he heard those words, but it wasn't like her mind was clear enough for her to try to figure it out. "Let me see if you have any signs of a concussion," Jorge said as he walked up to her, grabbing a flashlight from his belt. His voice was low, for it seemed her hearing had indeed changed already. He stood right in front of her, and, after a brief moment of hesitation, he turned the flashlight on and pointed it straight into her right eye.

Vampires' eyes had a very peculiar reaction to direct light. The pupils would narrow unbelievably quickly, a reaction a lot faster than the one that could be observed on humans, but the moment the light wasn't pointed at them anymore, they'd go back to normal size in less than a second. Their eyes would start to water and the vampire, start blinking, since their eyes were extremely sensitive to light. And that reaction was exactly what happened when he pointed the light into Sam's eyes.

"So?" Sam asked, impatient as she blinked several times. Her eyes hurt even more than before, for the light from her father's flashlight seemed unusually bright to her eyes.

Jorge hesitated briefly before responding, checking that reaction more than once because he had never actually seen it, he had just been told about it. "Uh... There are no signs of a concussion or anything like that," he said finally, turning the flashlight off. "So... Is there anything else? I mean, apart from the headache, the dizziness and, well... the pain in your neck?" He knew he was risking a lot by standing so close to her, since he had no idea of how things would turn out and how she'd react, but he needed to know what she was feeling, for he had to know what exactly he was dealing with.

"No, not really." She made short pause, before adding, "My eyes are just acting out a little bit, and my hearing is really crazy."

Jorge frowned at that. "What do you mean?"

Sam shook her head lightly. "I don't know," she admitted with a light shrug of her shoulders. "My eyes just can't seem to focus on anything very well, and everything is just way too loud." It was just then she realized that she was also hungry. Actually, she was starving, but this hunger seemed different from anything she had ever felt before. It was more intense, and it did not feel exactly like hunger; it resembled some sort of craving or something of the sort. "And I'm just... really hungry." She shook her head, as though trying to clear up her thoughts, and had she been looking at her father as she spoke, she would not have failed to noticed the pained expression that took over his features for a brief moment. "I'll grab something to eat and then I'm gonna crash. Maybe then I'll feel better," she announced finally, before walking to the kitchen without even waiting for a reply.

When she got there, she went straight to the fridge. She opened the door and peered inside, trying to find something to eat, but even though she was starving, nothing that was in there seemed appealing to her in the very least. She simply stood there for a moment, and after a quick glance over everything inside the fridge, she ended up grabbing a plate full of ham. Ham was always the answer. Well, at least it had always been.

But after eating a few slices of ham, she realized that ham wasn't really the answer this time. She kept eating the ham, but it was like the more she ate, the hungrier she became. She stared at the last slice of ham for a few seconds, but it seemed like even though she was hungry, food wasn't exactly what she needed. She swallowed the last slice of ham thinking of how stupid that last thought had sounded and then decided that maybe the best thing she could do was go to bed and try to sleep a little. Maybe she'd feel better after some rest.

Sam crossed the living room keeping that last thought in mind, her heels clattering as they hit wooden the floor. At the sound, Jorge and Pam, who had been engulfed in a whispered conversation while Sam was out of the room, immediately tensed up, though that went unnoticed by Sam as well. "I'm going to bed," the blonde girl announced. "Maybe I'll feel better in the morning."

"Okay, then," Jorge replied, and once again, Sam failed to notice the evident pain that had taken over both his eyes and voice.

Sam climbed up the stairs lazily, and after taking a few more steps down the hallway, she finally reached her bedroom. As soon as she was inside the room, she walked to her bathroom to get ready to go to bed, but the moment she opened the small room's door, everything changed. She paused at the door, her entire body suddenly tensing up as an unknown smell reached her nostrils. She could not identify it at first, but it soon grew incredibly sweet, causing her mouth to water.

She breathed it in slowly as she stepped inside the bathroom, a weird feeling taking over her entire body. She felt as though the only thing that mattered in that moment was finding where that delicious smell was coming from. She breathed it in one more time, and the smell got even more addicting at each second. The smell seemed to be coming from her left, so she spun around and looked at what was there, realizing that it was the bathroom cabinet.

She held out her hand and opened the cabinet slowly, peering inside and finally getting a view of what was guarded inside it, and she couldn't help but frown at the sight, finding it hard to believe what she was seeing.

A blood bag.

And as Sam eyed the bag carefully, she noticed there was a small note attached to it.

_Just a small gift from T._

She had no idea of who 'T' was, but that didn't matter to her in that moment. The only thing in her mind was the small bag right in front of her; more specifically, the dark red liquid guarded in its interior.

Sam hesitantly held her hand out toward the blood bag and grabbed it from the cabinet. Her mind went completely blank as she stared at the bag filled with a crimson red liquid that laid in her hands and she soon started to raise it up toward her lips slowly…

She stopped midway the movement, finally realizing what she was doing. _What the hell is this thing doing here?_ Sam wondered, but she had no time to think about that, since she suddenly heard a light knock on her room door. She quickly shoved the blood bag back inside the cabinet, closed the small door shut and rushed back into her room. She marched toward the door, which she swung open quickly, only to find herself face-to-face with her father, who was standing in the hallway.

Sam's brows furrowed in confusion, for she had been expecting to see her mother, and not him. "Uh... Dad?" she asked.

"Hey, I just..." He sounded oddly nervous, and Sam could tell that, for some reason, he was choosing his words carefully. "I just came up here to see if you're feeling better, you know, from your headache and... Well, if you're feeling better."

"Yeah, I'm... I'm feeling way better now. My head doesn't hurt that much anymore," she lied. Actually, the headache was even worse than before, but she needed him to get out of there so she could decide what she'd do with that weird and mysterious blood bag. "I think I just need to sleep a little and tomorrow I'll be fine."

"Oh..." Jorge seemed taken aback by her answer, and it took him a few seconds to be able to respond to that. "Okay, then," he said finally. "We'll be down in the living room, so if you need us, just yell."

Sam simply nodded in response, choosing to remain silent.

Her father simply eyed her for a moment, and there was an emotion in his eyes that the blonde girl found herself unable to identify. Before she could say anything, though, Jorge spun around and hesitantly began walking down the hallway toward the stairs.

Sam closed her room door shut quickly and rushed back into the bathroom, opening the cabinet and getting the blood bag back out of there, only to simply stare at it for a moment. She read the note one more time, but yet again, she had no success in trying to understand it. _Who's T?_ she wondered, examining the bag once again as she walked back inside her room and toward her bed, where she sat down. The more she looked at the bag, the more blurry her thoughts became and the more she felt the urge to at least taste its content... What bad could it do? It would be just a little mouthful, maybe even less...

She started raising the blood bag slowly one more time, not really thinking about it as her mind became foggy once again. The moment her lips touched the plastic, she sucked in slowly, using the tube on the upper part of the bag like some sort of straw. She gasped once the blood touched her tongue for the first time, but she soon got used to the feeling as the dark liquid continued to flow into her mouth and down her throat. Even if she had tried to stop, she wouldn't have been able to do it. It seemed like something had taken over her; she didn't felt like herself anymore, and the more she drank the blood, the more addicted to it she got and the more she wanted it. She finished the contents of the bag in less than five minutes, and when she did, she threw the empty bag on the floor, completely out of breath. She felt weird, and even though the headache that had been bothering her since the moment she'd woken up earlier had magically gone away, now she was feeling even dizzier than before.

And as she struggled to try to understand what the hell had just happened, Sam caught a glimpse of her image in the wall mirror and gasped. Was she hallucinating? She was sure that she had seen something under her eyes; something black stretching as it tried to reach her cheeks, though whatever it was, it vanished before she could see it clearly. She approached the mirror slowly to have a closer look at her face and saw it again, but this time, it seemed like the veins under her eyes were pressing themselves against the skin right over them, like they were trying to come out, while the white part of her eyes suddenly became red.

She could not stop herself from screaming in horror at the sight. _What the hell is happening to me? s_he thought, panicking. Her bedroom door swung open suddenly and her father burst into the room, his worry as clear as crystal on his face, for he had heard her scream from the floor below, but as soon as he caught sight of his daughter's, he froze, his eyes wide with shock.

"Oh my God," he whispered in horror. He had seen the veins under vampires' eyes coming out like that more than once, but seeing that happening to his own daughter made him freeze completely.

A sudden sharp pain in her gum made Sam bring her hands up to her mouth. It was such a horrible pain that it seemed like her upper gum would tear apart at any second, and she found herself screaming once again, this time due to the pain, but the sound came out muffled because of her hands.

The pain got worse for a second, but then it was gone. Sam removed her hands from her mouth and lowered them slowly and hesitantly, expecting the pain to come back, though it never did. She was feeling beyond weird, but she couldn't explain how… It was just… Different. Both the headache and the dizziness had completely faded away, but now she felt hungry again. A rush of feelings seemed to have invaded her, as if an enormous amount of adrenaline had been shot into her bloodstream, though this felt a lot different than that.

She was startled by the sound of a loud gasp coming from behind her, which caused her to quickly spin around. She looked for the source of the sound and spotted her father standing in the doorway, staring at her… Shocked? Afraid? She couldn't exactly identify all the emotions that were reflected on his face in that moment, but his expression made her turn around once again and look up at the mirror, and what she saw made her eyes widen in shock.

Her canine teeth weren't like they used to be. They were extremely longer and pointier, looking like… Well, fangs. She stared at her reflection for a long and silent moment, until she looked back at her father, who was now backing away from her slowly.

The hungry feeling she had been feeling since the moment she'd woken up was back with full force, and the sound of her father's heartbeat, for some reason audible to her ears, made her mind grow foggy once again and her thoughts irrational. She lost herself for a moment, and when she realized what she was doing, she had already pushed Jorge against a wall and was staring at the veins in his neck. Her mouth started to water as she imagined his warm blood going down her throat…

_No…_

The hunger would go away…

_No… I… can't…_

She didn't want it, but she _craved _it…

_I won't… I… need it._

Sam couldn't control it. She flew to his neck, the soft skin not being able to stop her sharp fangs, which resembled two tiny daggers.

Jorge gritted his teeth together as the pain shot through his nerves. He had never been bitten by a vampire before, so he didn't know the pain was that much, and the weird feeling of his blood being drained from his body was truly horrible. He could have driven the stake he kept on the inside part of his coat through Sam's stomach, since that would make her let go of him, but he couldn't make himself do it. She was his _daughter. _And even though he was sure he'd die, the only thing he did to at least try to free himself was pushing her with as much strength as he could gather, but she was unbelievably stronger than him, exactly how he had imagined her to be.

His blood was even better than the one from the blood bag. His was fresh, warm—even more addicting.

_Stop…_

She couldn't stop, it was too good… The feeling of his blood flowing down her throat was just too good... She felt her strength growing at each mouthful of blood she swallowed, as though every drop of his blood gave her some sort of power she had never even dreamt of having.

_Stop…_

She could feel his hold on her arm loosening gradually… His heart was beating frantically inside his chest as it struggled to pump the little remains of blood that still ran through his veins... He didn't have much strength left…

_STOP!_

Sam flew off Jorge, throwing herself backwards, and her father fell forward on the hard floor, unmoving.

_What did I do?_ Sam asked herself, panicking, but she didn't want to go near him again. She didn't want to risk hurting him again… That was, if he wasn't already dead.

That last thought made her panic even more than she already was, which caused Sam to turn around and run out of the room. She needed to go somewhere alone and far away from everyone, and she needed to do it _now_.

When Sam got to the first floor of the house, she crossed the living room so fast that she was already facing the front door in less than a second. She heard a gasp coming from behind her and quickly turned around, startled by the sound. Her mother was still sitting on the couch and was staring at her with wide eyes, and Sam could easily tell why. She knew that there was blood all over her mouth and chin, but she did nothing to clean it. Instead, she turned around once again and yanked the front door open. She heard her mother calling out her name, but she didn't look back as she ran away from the house and into the darkness that surrounded it.

* * *

**Author's Note: Alright, calm down Seddie warriors! I know that there was like, no Seddie at all in this chapter, but don't worry, the Seddieness will start in the next chapter ;)**

**Well, I think that's it for now. Thanks for reading, and please leave me a review telling me what you thought of the fic! ****Pwetty please! :D**

**And again, thanks for reading!** **:) :)**

**xxiCarlyFanxx**

**:D**


	2. Chapter 2: The Departure

**Author's Note: Hey guys!**

**First of all, I want to thank all the people who reviewed and/or added this story to favorites and/or alerts! It makes me so happy, you have no idea =)**

**I apologize for not updating for so long, but like I said, I had to work on a few fics before I went on with this one. =P**

**Anyway, before we go on, I just want to answer two reviews:**

_**Living. legends21:**_** I've never watched Nikita, but I hear it's pretty good, and I might watch it someday, if I have time =P**

_**TheElegantFaerie:**_** I'm still not sure if any character from TVD will be in this story, mainly because an opportunity hasn't occured to me yet. But maybe, if I somehow end up having an idea that could bring someone from the show to this fic, why not? =P**

**I noticed there were a few typos and grammar mistakes in the last chapter, but I've already fixed them =) If you find anything that I didn't notice, don't be afraid to point it out, I'll be really thankful. =)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own iCarly or The Vampire Diaries.**

**Enjoy! =)**

* * *

Darkness Times

Chapter 2: The Departure

**Pam Puckett**

Pam called out after Sam, but it was already too late, for the front door had already closed shut behind the girl. She suddenly started having difficulties to breathe as the scene she had just seen repeated several times in her mind and as she thought about Jorge, wondering if he was still alive. That last thought made her feel even worse.

_I need to call for help. Jorge probably needs an ambulance,_ Pam thought as she tried to stand up from the couch. It took her a lot of effort and time until she was finally able reach the phone table, and when she finally did, she picked up the phone in her shaky hands and dialed the number to call an ambulance. The phone rang three times until someone finally answered the call.

_"Seattle Medical Center, how can I help you?"_ a high-pitched voice asked on the other side of the phone line.

"I need an ambulance right now! It's an emergency! My ex-husband is about to die from major blood loss!" Pam said, panic filling her voice. Even though she couldn't be entirely sure if what she had just told the girl was actually true, it was the only assumption she could make after what she had just seen.

_"Calm down, miss. Just tell me your name and where you are,"_ the girl said slowly after noticing the panic in Pam's voice, trying to calm her down at least a little bit, but she wasn't really successful.

Pam told the girl her name and address slowly, but the girl paused for a moment, confused.

_"Uh… Just a moment, miss, okay?"_ the girl said.

Pam nodded lightly in response. Just then she remembered that the girl couldn't see her, so she spoke into the phone one more time. "Alright," she replied, her voice coming out as a low whisper. She heard the sound of the girl typing something into a computer for a moment, but then there was silence.

_"Uh… Miss? I don't think that's gonna be necessary because we've just gotten a call telling us to go to this same address,"_ the girl said, probably reading the information on the computer screen right in front of her.

"What? But I—" Pam started, but stopped abruptly. _No way. _"Uh… Did the person who called, uh… say their name?" she asked hesitantly.

_"Oh, yeah… A girl named… Samantha Puckett,"_ the girl finally said, confirming Pam's assumption._ "She might be related to you, right? You two have the same last name…"_

"Yes… She's… she's my daughter," Pam said, trying not to let her voice crack. _Sam called an ambulance._ That sentence echoed inside her head several times before its meaning actually sunk in. "Uh… Alright, then," Pam said with the calmest voice she could muster in her current situation. "Well, thanks, anyway." With that, she hung up, letting herself fall back slightly, just so she could sit down on the floor. She stayed on that spot, unmoving, staring at the wall across from her in the living room and not really knowing what to think, for her thoughts had suddenly grown too incoherent for her to find any sort of rational meaning in them.

Fortunately, it didn't take longer than ten minutes for the ambulance to arrive.

**Sam Puckett**

Sam watched as the ambulance drove away from the house and into the darkness from the spot on the sidewalk where she had sat down across the street. She had seen two white-vested men carrying Jorge out of the house on a litter and another man helping her mother walk toward and climb into the vehicle. She could still hear the sound of the sirens for a long time before it faded away completely, and then she found herself alone in the deserted street.

If she had felt weird a few minutes ago, she could find no words to describe how she was feeling now. Everything around her was brighter than it had ever been, and she could see everything more clearly, even in the distance, as though someone had turned on HD mode in her eyes. All the sounds around her seemed to be amplified, and the same thing was happening to everything she was feeling. But that wasn't all.

There was a part of her, which seemed to not have been there before, that wanted not to feel anything, and it felt like it really could do that if she wanted it to. She felt the urge to explore that part of herself, to let it take over her, but she held it back, closing her eyes shut tightly. She spent a few seconds like that in an attempt to calm herself down, before opening her eyes once again.

She looked back at the house across the street, the same one she had spent so many years of her life in, and sighed, cleaning her mouth with the back of her hand, since she knew there was blood all over her face because of… Never mind.

She had her head resting on her hands as she tried to clear up her thoughts, but she soon realized that was a much harder task than she had thought it to be. Nothing that had happened in the last few hours made sense to her, especially now that the memories from the last few minutes before she blacked out had finally come back.

How could that guy, Tyler, or whatever he was called, really have killed her, if she was right there, still alive? _I mean, I'm still alive… right?_ That thought had been haunting her since the moment she left the house several minutes ago, and she still didn't have the answer to that question.

The last thing she remembered was that guy holding her head, making it turn roughly to the left, but it seemed like Sam wasn't even making any effort to try to stop him because he was just too strong, and then everything became black after an extremely brief and sharp pain in her neck. Had he tried to break her neck? Or had he really broken it? _Don't be silly, Sam,_ she told herself harshly._ If he had really broken my neck, how could I be here?_ Sam kept telling herself that, but her subconscious still thought otherwise.

Even if she tried, she just couldn't ignore what she had done to her father, as well as the fact that she had drank all the contents of a _blood_ bag and how her face had changed, including how her canine teeth had turned into fangs, which all pointed toward the same thing, but she honestly could not make herself even think of a certain 'V' word at the moment.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of someone stopping a car that had clearly been above the speed limit when it reached that street, parking a little bit before Sam's house. Sam ignored the car at first, for she had something far more important to occupy her mind with, but she could not help but stare at the tall, blonde figure that got out the car and started walking down the street.

Something in that guy caught her attention, and she watched him curiously. He reminded her of someone she hadn't seen in a long time, but she couldn't quite place his face anywhere. Maybe...

Sam's eyes widened when she realized who he reminded her of. He was tall and a bit muscular, but not much, and had golden hair and deep blue eyes that matched hers perefctly...

Just like her dead brother, Ryan.

She shook her head vigorously. _No, that's impossible,_ she told herself. Ryan was dead, so he couldn't have simply decided to walk by that particular street in the middle of the night.

Gripping tightly onto that last thought, Sam lost interest in the stranger, for she judged it as completely crazy for her to even consider the possibility that he could actually be her brother.

She tore her gaze away from him for a moment, but when she looked back up at him, she watched as he turned left on the sidewalk right in front of her house and started walking toward the front porch. She followed him with her gaze while he stepped on the front porch and paused right there, where he didn't move for a long silent moment. The stranger looked troubled for some reason, and Sam could clearly see the worry on his face as he stood on her front porch silently. He looked down, though his eyes were not focused on the wooden floor right under his feet, as if his mind was concentrated on something else.

He stayed like that, unmoving, for a long moment, until he finally sighed. The stranger then took something out of his right jeans pocket, and when a screen lit up, Sam realized it was a cell phone.

Sam was startled by the fact that she could hear the sound of him dialing a number into the small mobile phone perfectly from where she was, even if she was all the way across the street, but she didn't have time to think about it, since someone soon answered the guy's call.

_"Hey," _a girl's voice answered the call, not sounding happy at all.

"Hey, uh... Did you find her?" the guy spoke into the phone nervously.

_"Yes, but…"_ The voice paused for a moment, as though hesitant to finish that._ "I was too late,"_ the voice voice finally answered with a sigh._ "She's knocked out here in her dormitory. I'll stay here and wait. She'll be up soon."_

The stranger sighed at those words, a look of immense sadness suddenly taking over his features. "Okay," he replied, the sadness in his voice matching the one evident in his face.

"_What about you? How did it go?" _the voice asked.

"Not well," the stranger said, shaking his head lightly. "I can smell blood, and there is no heartbeat or sign of anyone in the house, but I can't go inside to check." He paused, looking down, as if ashamed. "She's gone," he added, his voice barely a whisper, though, for some unknown reason, still perfectly audible to Sam.

"_Ryan, don't worry, we'll find her. But for now we'll have to take care of this one, alright?"_

Sam's eyes widened as soon as she heard that name. _Impossible, _she thought, even though she supposed she wasn't the best person to judge anything as impossible after what had happended to her earlier that night. But… Could it really be Ryan? Her so called dead brother? And if it really was him, how could that even be possible? It just didn't make sense...

That was when an extremely random and impossible thought crossed her mind, but the more she thought about it, the more possible it seemed, considering what had happened to her just a few hours earlier.

Some random stranger had tried to kill her, if not killed. Then, when she wakes up and sees blood, she feels the urge to drink it, an urge so big that she found it impossible to resist it, and when she gave in to that urge, her canines lengthened and turned into fangs, and those veins came out of her skin while the white part of her eyes became red, which could only lead her to think that now she was probably a… Well, a…

_Vampire._

She shivered involuntarily when that word echoed in her mind, but everything was pointing toward that. And if she wasn't a vampire, then what the hell was she?

And if she was dead—well, undead—why couldn't her brother be? He had said on the phone that he could smell blood in the air, so wasn't that enough proof? But then, why hadn't he contacted his family? The more Sam thought about it, the more confused she got. Her parents had never really explained how her brother had died. The best explanation she had ever gotten out of them was that it had happened in a car accident when he and a small group of friends were driving back home from a party at night, and there had been no corpse in the funeral because the car had fallen into a river and all the passengers had gone away with the waterflow. Two of them had been found later, but Ryan and another friend of his hadn't.

Sam knew there was no other way to find out if that man standing just a few steps away from her was really her brother, so she quickly got to her feet and crossed the street one more time that night, approaching the stranger without making a single sound.

"Alright, I'll meet you there soon, okay?" the stranger said into the phone, resuming the conversation Sam had already completely lost interest in. "I'll see you later." And with that, he hung up.

When Sam reached the driveway of her house, the man finally looked up at her, finally realizing that there was someone else around. He stared at the blonde girl who was now standing before the front porch for a long, silent moment, and he looked like he couldn't believe in his eyes. He walked in her direction slowly, pausing when there was still a medium distance between them.

"Sam?" Sam heard him whisper, but she didn't answer. All she could do was simply stare at him, for now that she was standing right before him, she was able to realize just how enormous—and even a bit disturbing—the resemblance between that man and her brother actually was. "Sam?" he repeated, his voice coming out a bit louder this time, which was enough to break Sam out of her trance.

"It's not possible," she whispered, still not believing that man could possibly be her brother.

The stranger stared at her curiously, not really knowing what to say next, wondering what was going through the blonde's head in that moment, but by the way she was staring at him, he soon figured it out.

"Sam, just listen to me and I'll explain everything to you," he began, his voice somewhat desperate. "I know it's hard for you to understand what happened to you tonight, but—"

Sam hurried to cut him off. "No, you have no idea what happened to me tonight," she said harshly.

"Yes, I do, and I was coming here to avoid it, but… I guess I was too late," he said, his voice low as he eyed her carefully. His eyes settled on her mouth and chin for only a brief moment, which made Sam assume her face was still covered with her father's blood.

"How could you have come here to avoid anything if I don't even know you?" Sam asked, annoyed.

"You really don't recognize me?" the guy asked, sounding disappointed as he allowed his eyes to meet hers once again.

"Just stop, alright?" Sam said, raising her voice a little bit more than she meant to. "Stop trying to trick me because that's not gonna work!"

"You think that this is all some kind of joke?" he asked, also raising the volume of his voice. "And that I'm not Ryan Puckett?"

"Of course you're not him, because that's completely impossible!" she told him.

"Why is it impossible?" the guy asked challengingly.

"Because he's dead!" Sam exclaimed, losing her patience.

The stranger eyed her for a brief moment, before saying, "And so are you."

Sam paused. That was exactly the thought she had been trying to avoid, and hearing it out loud made her feel a chill going down her spine, causing her to tense up suddenly.

The stranger noticed that immediately, and he looked somewhat regretful. He hurried to speak again, but this time, in a warm, calm voice. "Sam, listen," he began. "There's no other way to say this but… Well, you are dead, there's no way to deny it, and you know it."

Sam wasn't looking at him anymore; she was now looking down at the sidewalk right under her feet with her arms crossed over her chest. Things still didn't make any sense to her, and she didn't say anything, hoping that he'd keep talking. Even if she didn't know the guy, or at least she refused to admit that she did, he seemed to know a lot more than she did about everything that had happened to her that night.

"I know you might be freaking out right now, but I could make it all clear to you… If you let me, of course." He paused for a second, as if considering something in his mind. "Sammy," he added after a moment, and Sam looked up abruptly.

She hadn't heard that nickname since the night her brother died, and he was the only one who had ever been allowed to call her that, though not in public, of course.

Sam stared at the young man standing a few feet away from her for a moment. He looked like he was seventeen years old, even though her brother had died over five years ago. It still seemed impossible, but weirdly enough, she believed that guy could be her brother. She still needed to know one thing to fully believe it, though.

"How is this possible? I mean… he's… you…" Sam started, but stopped, not really knowing how to say what she wanted to.

Ryan didn't need her to finish the sentence to understand what she meant, though. He simply walked up to her slowly, pausing when he was standing right in front of her. "I know that this might sound ridiculous, but..." he said, looking down. He hesitated a little bit, before walking toward the sidewalk edge, where he sat down slowly. "But I'm sure you'd have done the same thing in my place."

Sam just kept staring at him curiously as he started to tell her the story that could be the most insane yet true story she had ever heard.

"It started out just like any other night I went out with my friends, having fun, playing around like any other group of teenage boys who had absolutely nothing to worry about apart from school and getting home on time." His voice came out as a low whisper into the dark night, but Sam could still hear it perfectly. "We were four, and were walking back home from a party, when we met this girl on the street. It was very dark, and the girl came up to us asking how she could get downtown. We started to explain it to her, when I suddenly noticed that one of our friends, Jake, was missing. I looked around, but there was no sign of him anywhere, and then this guy appeared right in front of me from nowhere. You probably know him as Tyler, but I—" He was about to go on, but Sam cut him off abruptly.

"Wait, do you mean Tyler as in...?" Sam started, but let the question hang in the air, and Ryan finished it for her.

"Tyler as in the vampire who kil—" Sam flinched, and Ryan quickly changed his choice of word. "...turned you?" Sam nodded lightly in confirmation. "The one and only," Ryan said, and then went on with his story. "Anyway... Tyler was suddenly standing right in front of me. He grabbed Chuck by the collar of his shirt and… bit his neck. I looked to the right and saw that the girl, Trianna, was doing the same thing to Kevin…" He looked down, shaking his head lightly as he seemed to relive everything he was saying inside his own mind. "I was alone. I tried to push Tyler off Chuck, but he was too strong. And he soon dropped Chuck and turned to me. I tried to run, but I was pushed back by what seemed like a concrete hand and then I felt a sharp pain in my throat and I… blacked out."

Sam looked down for a moment. She could not even begin to imagine how painful him telling her about his death must be, but she remained silent, for her curiosity ended up getting the best of her.

After a brief pause, Ryan continued his story, his voice a lot more controlled than before. "The next thing I remember is that I woke up lying on a couch in a house I had never seen before, and this had suddenly appeared on my finger." He held up his right hand, showing Sam a silver ring, the dark blue stone attached to it shining because of the moonlight.

Sam now felt a little bit more comfortable, so she sat down next to him on the sidewalk. "A ring?" she asked, taking a closer look at the ring he was wearing.

"It's a daylight ring," he explained. "If we don't wear one of these, we burn in the sun." At those words, Sam's eyes widened with surprise. Noticing that, Ryan hurried to add, "Don't worry, I've got this one for you." He stuffed his hand inside his pocket and got another ring out of there. This one also had a deep blue stone on it, but it wasn't as dark as Ryan's, and it was also smaller than his.

Sam held out her hand slowly and hesitantly got the ring in her hands, before putting it on.

"How can this protect me from the sun?" she asked, staring down at the small ring that was now shining from her right hand middle finger.

"There's a spell in it that protects us from the sunlight," he explained. "The stone is called _Lapis Lazuli_."

There was a long, silent pause before Sam spoke up again. "Thank you," she said, finally looking up at him again.

The corner of her brother's mouth went up a little bit, forming a small smile. "No problem," he said. "It was supposed to be someone else's, but… Well, that doesn't really matter right now, because the person ended up not turning into a vampire, and the ring ended up with me."

Sam nodded lightly, deciding not to ask him any more about it. There was another brief silent moment, before Sam finally spoke again, her voice just as low as a whisper as her hesitation became evident.

"Is it true, then? Am I really a… vampire?" Sam finally asked the question that had been bothering her the whole night, and her brother nodded in response. "I guess I had already figured it out… I just needed to confirm it," she admitted, moving her gaze up to the sky, looking up at the moon. "I can't blame you for not coming back. I should have left the moment I woke up."

"Why do you say that?" Ryan asked, looking back at her. "I never came back because I was too afraid to face Dad again after I found out what he started to do after I died."

"What do you mean?" Sam asked as she focused her gaze back on her brother, not finding much sense in what he had just said.

"Right after I died, Dad joined the vampire-hunting business," Ryan replied with a shrug. "That was one of the reasons why I couldn't come back."

"Wait, Dad is a… vampire hunter?" Sam asked in disbelief, and Ryan nodded. "Oh, come on!" Sam shook her head in a somewhat stubborn manner. "There's just no way our father is a vampire hunter!"

"You really think it's impossible? I mean, just a few hours ago I bet you thought it was impossible that vampires existed, and now, look at you. You're a vampire," Ryan said matter-of-factly, and Sam couldn't deny that he indeed had a point. "And anyway," Ryan continued after a moment, "that's only one of the two reasons why I didn't come back."

"And the other one was?" Sam asked, raising her eyebrows at him questioningly.

Ryan hesitated for a brief moment before responding. "I didn't want to risk your lives," he finally said. "I mean, in the beginning, I killed almost every human I came across, and I didn't want to hurt any of you, so I kept the biggest distance from all of you that I could."

Sam could not help but look down as she heard those words, for she suddenly felt uncomfortable as she remembered what had happened back inside the house with their father. "I get what you mean," she admitted lowly, sounding as though she was speaking more to herself than to her brother. "I made a mistake myself."

"What do you mean?" Ryan asked, looking at her curiously, but the blonde avoided his gaze.

Sam really didn't want to talk about that, so she tried to change the subject. "So… These rings really work?" Sam asked randomly, eyeing the ring she was wearing with fake-curiosity, since that was the first thing that crossed her mind.

Ryan seemed a bit confused for a second, but he soon realized what she was trying to do and insisted on the previous subject. "Sam, don't try to change the subject. What did you mean by that?" he asked, his tone slightly impatient.

Sam forced herself to look up at him. "I wasn't trying to—" Sam started, but stopped when she noticed the 'I-know-you-are-keeping-something-from-me' look Ryan was giving her, and she looked down again. "Okay, fine, I'll tell you." She sighed in defeat. "It's just that… It's just that before I left the house, I kind of… almost killed Dad," Sam blurted out, and didn't dare to look up again.

"You…?" Ryan didn't finish the sentence, because Sam started to talk incredibly fast and nervously.

"Look, Ryan, I seriously don't know what came over me, but the only thing I know is that in a moment I was standing in my room, and in the other I had fangs and I had Dad pinned against the wall and I just couldn't stop myself from… from biting his neck, and then when I let go of him, he fell to the floor unconscious and I ran out of the house." She blurted it all out in only one breath, and when she stopped, she finally met her brother's gaze again, but instead of the severe glare she was expecting to see on his face, she saw a really concerned look.

"Is he alright?" Ryan asked, sounding truly worried.

"I don't know," she admitted, shrugging weakly. "I called an ambulance and they took him and Mom away, but I don't even know if he's still alive." After a short pause, she added, "But aren't you going to say something like 'you should have been more careful' or 'you're the worst sister I could ever have'?"

Ryan seemed to be slightly amused by that, chuckling humorlessly. "Of course not, Sam," he told her. "I know you couldn't control that. I went through everything you're going through myself, and I'm surprised that you were strong enough to stop before you killed him."

Even though Ryan was clearly trying to sound calm and reassuring, he still seemed a bit worried, so Sam tried to change the subject. "So… Who was that girl you were talking to back there on the porch? On the phone, I mean." She hoped that change in the conversation's direction might break the tension that had suddenly filled the air around them.

"Oh, yeah, that was Katelyn," he explained. "She's my girlfriend, and the vampire who turned me the night when Tyler and Trianna killed me and my friends, since I had her blood in my system when I died. Melanie probably doesn't remember her because when I started dating Kate she had already gone off to that boarding school, but you might remember her."

After thinking for a moment, Sam was finally able to remember something about Ryan dating a girl named Katelyn about five years ago, before his 'death'. If she remembered correctly, she had straight black hair and bright green eyes. "So you were dating a vampire back then?" Sam asked in disbelief. "And you seriously didn't think that could lead to something dangerous?"

Her brother simply shrugged lightly in response. "I fell in love with her, and all I wanted was to be with her, no matter what the price I'd have to pay was." He made a short pause, before adding, "Even if I'd end up being killed by her own brother."

Sam looked up at him suddenly, shock clear in her features. "Wait, wait, wait. Katelyn is Tyler's sister?"

Ryan looked down, sighing. "Listen," he began, "Kate is nothing like her brother. They actually can't stand each other." He made short pause, as though trying to decide whether he should say anything else, before he finally added, "It's a pretty complicated story." Ryan was clearly trying to make her drop it, but Sam insisted on that subject.

"Oh, come on!" Sam insisted. "It's not like we don't have time for it, is it?"

Ryan eyed her for a brief moment, before sighing in defeat. "Okay, okay," he said, giving in. "There's really not much to say about it. Katelyn had two brothers and they all lived with their mother, since their father had died in a car accident when she was only five years old. One night, her older brother disappeared, and two weeks later, when they all thought he had either run away or died, he came back, though he had been turned into a vampire during the time he was gone." Ryan made a short pause before going on, as if allowing his words to actually sink in, or maybe simply trying to organize his thoughts. "It was probably the worst night of her life, because that night she was pushed away from her younger brother and she lost both her mother and her own life."

Sam swallowed drily, for she somehow felt as though she could relate to that story in a few ways. She remained silent, however, waiting for her brother to continue speaking.

"That ring was supposed to be her younger brother's, but he managed to escape from Tyler that night," he told her, pointing at the ring she was wearing. "But I don't really feel comfortable talking about it, mainly because Katelyn didn't feel comfortable about telling me everything, so if you really want to know any further, it's better to hear it from her, since I don't even know the whole story."

Ryan's words seemed to linger in the air for a moment, and there was another long, silent pause between the two of them.

"Why the hell did Tyler do this to me?" Sam asked, suddenly breaking the silence. "I mean, I never did anything to the guy."

"It's not something you did," the other vampire replied. "It's because of something that happened a long time ago, soon after I died. Tyler had been wanting revenge from our father since then, and now… he got it."

"But why did he want revenge from Dad?" she asked curiously.

"Like I said before, right after I died Dad became a vampire hunter, and he swore that he'd find the vampire who had killed me. And he sort of found him." Ryan looked down for a moment. "Actually, he found _her_. Trianna. And he drove a stake right through her heart." He let out a tired sigh. "Since then, Tyler has hated Dad and wanted revenge… So he got it the best way he could think of." Ryan looked back up at Sam, before adding, "By turning both his daughters into vampires."

"So he killed me because of—" Sam started, but stopped abruptly as his words finally sunk in. "Wait, wait, wait. Did you just say… _both_ his daughters?" Sam asked, clearly thinking and hoping that she had not heard him right… But she had. "What do you mean by that? That he…" Sam couldn't finish that sentence, so she let it float in the air, and Ryan finished it for her.

"That he turned Melanie too?" he asked, and then nodded lightly. "He wanted to have full revenge, so he killed you both, making sure that our father knew about both deaths."

Sam couldn't say anything for a long momnet; she just couldn't find her voice to do it. Melanie was also a vampire? She found it hard to believe it, but she had to admit it did make sense. Trying to see things from Tyler's perspective, even if it was extremely sick and twisted, the impact of his revenge wouldn't be full if he had turned only one of the twins.

"Katelyn is there with her? In Jacksonville?" Sam finally asked, and Ryan nodded once again. She had now finally understood the conversation Ryan had had on the front porch with Katelyn a few minutes ago.

"I couldn't just help one of you, but apparently Kate wasn't fast enough to stop Tyler," he admitted, sadness clear in his voice. "He tricked us into believing that you were both here in Seattle. When I finally found out that Melanie was still in Jacksonville, it was already too late." He made a short pause. "I'm heading there later… And if you wanna come with me, feel free."

"Of course I'm going with you, I can't just abandon Melanie," Sam said, sounding as though that was the most obvious thing in the world. "Of course, we never got along really well but…" She sighed. "She's still my sister."

Ryan did not respond; he simply nodded, agreeing with her wordlessly.

Sam looked up at the sky one more time, just now realizing that the sun would rise soon. She wondered if the ring would really work, since even though she was now fully convinced that the man—or better yet, the vampire—sitting right beside her was really her brother, she had just met him again after five years, and she didn't trust him completely just yet, especially because all that was just too freaky.

As everything that had happened to her that night replayed once again inside her head, her mind was suddenly filled with the images of all the people she had learned to love so much, but that she'd have to leave behind forever. Even though she didn't want to, she'd have to leave and never come back, or else she'd be risking the life of everyone she knew, and she definitely didn't want what had happened with her father—or worse—to ever happen again.

She thought about everyone she'd leave behind, but she knew that there were some people she'd miss a lot more than the others.

_Mom…_

Of course, Pam was never the best mother in the world, but she had at least tried to be a… Good one? Yeah, she could say that. They could have argued more than anything else, but now it seemed like they had finally learned to get along better. Sam just hoped that her mother wouldn't think of her as the monster who nearly or did kill her own father.

_Dad…_

Jorge had never really been a father that was always there for his daughters, but he always did his best to make them happy, and that was what really counted for Sam. She just hoped that he'd be fine, and that she hadn't killed him, but she was sure about one thing—she'd never forgive herself for what she had done to him, and she'd understand him if he hated her for now on.

_Carly…_

She had always been a goody two-shoes and she was the complete opposite of the blonde, but Sam could have never asked for a better best friend. She had always been there for her, even in the most insane and frustrating situations Sam could have caused, and she never gave up on her.

_Spencer…_

He had started out as 'Carly's older brother', but he soon turned into an older brother to Sam herself, especially after Ryan died. He always gave her advice whenever she needed it; always tried to help, even if in the most unusual ways; and always made her snacks when she asked him to, even though sometimes it was three in the morning when she asked him for food. She would for sure miss all his randomness, which never failed to amuse her.

_Freddie…_

Freddie. He was probably the most complicated of all those people, mainly because their relationship wasn't easy to understand at all.

When they first met, Sam could only think of one word to describe him—dork. That was it. Nothing more. He was a dork because he always got the best grades in class, never did anything against the rules and always did what his mother told him to do. And he was always chasing after Carly like a lost puppy, even though Sam didn't know why that bothered her so much back then.

Then time passed by, and as the two of them grew closer and their hatred slowly changed into a true friendship, even if they didn't really act like friends all the time, they soon started to truly care about each other.

But what would make Sam miss him the most was the fact that… She had started to feel something for the dork. _Really_ feel something for him.

He wasn't 'momma's little boy' anymore. Of course, his mother was still a psycho, but now he didn't let her treat him like a baby anymore like he used to, and he grew taller and stronger during the past few years. Sam had to admit that he was kind of… Well, hot. Sam tried to ignore the feeling she had whenever her skin came in contact with his; how many nights she had dreamed about the kiss they had shared in the fire escape so many years ago, as well as the kiss they shared the night before the day they all went off to college, but all those memories seemed so far away in that moment…

_Sam walked down the hallway that led to the fire escape slowly, wondering if she was right about where Freddie was. And when she got there, she was proven right._

_Freddie was sitting on the window ledge, staring right ahead of him at the dark Seattle night, seeming to be deep lost in thought, which was probably why he didn't realize Sam's presence until she sat down right next to him._

_He looked up at her quickly, probably because he knew that if Carly ever found out that he had sneaked out of her party, he'd be dead. But as soon as he realized it was Sam, he let out a relieved sigh._

_"Couldn't bear to hear another person crying and talking about the future?" Freddie asked teasingly._

_"Yeah, kind of," Sam replied, chuckling. "But it's not my fault that everyone says exactly the same thing all the time. Okay, it's true that I'm going to miss everybody and that everyone is parting their ways, but they don't need to keep repeating that over and over again, do they?" Sam asked, and Freddie nodded lightly in response, chuckling along with her._

_There was a brief pause, during which neither one of them said anything, until Freddie finally decided to speak again. __"Can you believe this?" he asked, breaking the silence. "That we're all heading off to college tomorrow, and that we probably won't see each other for the next six months?"_

_Sam sighed lowly. "Not really," she admitted. "It seems like it was yesterday that we started doing iCarly, all because I put Ms. Briggs's head on a rhinoceros body."_

_Freddie smiled at the memory. "Yeah..." He looked down for a moment. "I just can't believe that iCarly is over. We've been doing it for so long that it has already become a part of our lives. Knowing that we're not gonna do it anymore is just... weird."_

_Sam had to admit that she agreed with every single word he said, and she felt a wave of sadness suddenly wash through her. "I know what you mean," she told him honestly. "That's exactly how I feel, and I bet I can say the same for Carly." She sighed sadly. "Well, maybe we can, you know, post a few new videos and extras on the site whenever we have free time, even though I don't think that will happen really often."_

_Freddie sighed. "I'm gonna miss this."_

_"What?" Sam asked, frowning at him._

_"All of this," he said with a light shrug of his shoulders. "The life we've all been having for the past five years. Family... Friends." He said the last part looking deep into Sam's eyes, which sent a chill down her spine._

_"Me too," she said lowly, staring right back at him._

_It was just then that she realized how close to each other they had been sitting, but she didn't move away from him. Their gazes seemed to be glued to each other's, as though they were hypnotized. They were both frozen for several seconds, as if unsure of what to do, until Freddie started raising his right hand slowly._

_He rested it on Sam's right cheek, and his gaze moved down to her lips as he started to lean forward slowly, but when his mouth was only a few inches away from hers, he paused, waiting for her to close the distance between their lips, which she did gratefully and quickly, without even hesitating._

_It was a short, shy kiss, but it still made Sam's stomach flip around like crazy and fireworks explode inside both their heads, and when Freddie pulled a few inches back, his forehead resting lightly against hers, they were both breathing noticeably heavier than they had been before._

_They stared into each other's eyes for a long moment, both of them speechless as they tried to make themselves say something, until…_

"_Sam! Freddie! Are you guys out there?" a voice called from the hallway, and they both pulled apart quickly, just a second before Wendy came into view._

"_There you are! Carly is looking for you two!" the red-haired cheerleader said, and just then noticed the awkwardness in the air. "Uh… Did I just interrupt something or…" The girl seemed embarrassed, like she knew that she had just interrupted a moment between the two._

"_Uh… No, no, we were just… Trying to, you know, get away from the party for a while, just talking," Sam lied quickly, but she was pretty sure Wendy didn't buy it._

"_Okay, then…" Wendy's eyes wandered back and forth between them suspiciously for a brief moment, before she quickly added, "So… Are you two coming back to the party or not?"_

"_Yeah, sure…" Freddie said as the two of them stood up from the window ledge and followed Wendy back to Carly's apartment, but neither one of the two really wanted to go back._

They didn't have any other moment alone after that. The only other time they talked was when they said goodbye the next day, but Carly, Spencer, Gibby and Mrs. Benson were also in the room, so they didn't have the privacy they wanted to say what they really wanted to say to each other.

After six months in college, they had finally met up again that night, but once again, Carly was there all the time, and they were all tired from the long plane rides they had all gone through, so Sam was actually looking forward to trying to have an alone conversation with Freddie the next day, but now…

Now she knew that wouldn't happen.

It was then that Sam realized that a tear was rolling down her left cheek, but luckily, Ryan hadn't seen it. She looked down as more fresh tears threatened to fall, but she held them back as she tried to cover her face with her hair. For some reason, Sam felt as though she had completely lost control of her emotions, which annoyed her greatly, since she had never been the kind of person to cry like that.

Ryan soon noticed something was wrong, though, even if he couldn't see her face. "What's wrong?" he asked, worry clear in his voice.

"Nothing," Sam replied quickly, but her voice was a bit shaky, and when Ryan leaned a bit closer to her, he was able to catch a glimpse of the tear shining from her skin because of the moonlight.

"Hey, are you... are you crying?" he asked, his worry even more evident than before. He was about to wrap one arm around her shoulders in an attempt to comfort her, but Sam was suddenly back to her feet.

"No, I'm just… I'll just go inside for a moment, okay?" Without another word, she started walking toward the house without looking back, not even waiting for her brother's reply. She went inside and left the door open if Ryan possibly wanted to enter the house as well, but deep inside she hoped he wouldn't. She wanted some time alone.

Sam went straight to the stairs and quickly climbed up to the second floor of the house. She walked down the hallway that led to her room, feeling a chill going down her spine as she remembered what had happened in there earlier that same night, but she ignored it as she walked in. And the moment she was inside, everything changed.

A sweet scent reached her nostrils, causing Sam to suddenly grow anxious and lightheaded. She had a weird feeling near her eyes, and she suddenly knew that the black veins had popped out and the white part of her eyes had become red as she felt her canine teeth lengthening. And on the window wall, she was able to see the reason why that happened—the wall was stained with Jorge's blood. Sam quickly covered her mouth and nose with her hand and stormed out of the room in a blur.

In the hallway, she breathed in and out slowly, and she soon started to calm down as she felt her face going back to normal. With her hand still covering both her mouth and nose, she walked inside one more time, and this time it was a bit easier to control herself. She grabbed her still done bag—she hadn't even had the chance to unpack anything from it, since she had arrived that morning in Seattle and had gone straight to Carly's after dropping off her stuff at home—and left the room hurriedly and without a single glance behind.

She paused as she walked past her mother's room door, an idea popping up in her mind. She walked inside, ignoring the complete mess of the place, and walked toward the bed. She sat down on it and opened one of the drawers on the small dresser placed right next to the bed, before starting to look through the stuff there was inside of it, looking for something she hoped her mother still kept in there.

Inside the third drawer, she finally found the notebook where her mother usually wrote stuff about her boyfriends, like bank account numbers, passwords and that kind of thing. It took her barely a few seconds, but Sam soon found a pen in that mess, and after finally finding a blank page on the notebook and resting it carefully on her lap, she started writing down on it.

_Okay, I know this can sound cheesy and everything but I don't really care right now. I just couldn't leave without saying goodbye, even though I'm not doing it in person._

_Mom, I know that I was never the best daughter in the world and that we never really got along well, but you're still my mother, and even if I rarely said this to you… I love you, alright?_

_Dad, if you ever read this, just know that what happened back there in my room… I just… couldn't stop it… You really wouldn't understand if I tried to explain it. Just know that I'm sorry, I'll never forget what I did, and if you hate me right now, well, I can understand why._

_Please, no matter what you're going tell everyone—Carly, Freddie, Spencer, Gibby—just make sure to tell them that I love them. I really wanted to say goodbye to all of you, but I just can't, or else I'm not going to be able to leave, so it's better this way… I guess._

_I really didn't want things to be like this, but I have no other choice but leaving. I hope you understand. I'll miss you all._

_~Sam._

_P.S. Don't worry about Melanie, I'll get to her._

Sam read the letter twice before carefully yanking the page out of the notebook and then holding the letter in one hand while she put the notebook back inside the drawer along with the pen she had used to write in it. As she did that, though, something fell from inside the notebook and onto the floor, and when Sam laid her eyes on it, she realized it was a piece of paper. Sam laid the notebook on the dresser and picked the small piece of paper up from the floor.

And when Sam realized what it was, her heart sank. It was picture from probably over ten years ago.

Pam and Jorge were standing side by side, his arm wrapped loosely around her waist. Standing right in front of them were Sam, Melanie and Ryan… All of them still alive. Melanie was the only one of the three kids who looked at least a tiny bit normal and happy in that picture. Ryan looked annoyed as he stared down at his feet, and Sam easily could tell why. She remembered the day that picture was taken, and she remembered that Ryan had been mad at her for days because she had pulled a prank on him. And that prank was probably the reason why Sam looked so amused in the picture as she sent her brother a side-glance.

Sam had to smile at that. She remembered that picture was taken during one of Ryan's birthday parties by one of their aunts, who had gotten the permission to be out of prison for a few hours… With a police officer following her everywhere. So of course, as many of the Puckett family members had been invited, they had about five police officers eating cake with them that afternoon, not counting their father.

Sam looked back down at her bag, before opening it and peering inside. She looked for something inside of it, and soon, she found another picture. It was a picture from the last Christmas night she had spent over at Carly's apartment. Spencer had prepared a great dinner for everyone, and that dinner had included, of course, spaghetti tacos.

In the picture, Carly was the first one on the right, then there was Spencer, holding something that looked like a toy on his back—Sam guessed it was a rubber duck, though she couldn't be sure—then there was Freddie, looking gorgeous in a blue polo shirt, and then Sam herself, with one of Freddie's arms wrapped loosely around her waist to take the picture. As she took a closer look at the picture, Sam realized that in that moment, Gibby had been behind them with his arms up in the air.

Sam smiled as she looked down at both pictures, and then more tears came.

_Oh, come on, Puckett, don't be a baby,_ she told herself annoyedly._ You had already stopped crying, let's not start doing it again. _Sam kept telling herself that, but she couldn't stop the tears that followed.

It took her over fifteen minutes to calm down again, and when that finally happened, she put both pictures inside her bag, before putting the notebook and the pen back inside the drawer and closing it. And with the letter in hands and carrying her bag, she left the room.

After a quick pause at the hallway bathroom to throw some water on her face in an attempt to make it not look like she had been crying, as well as clean off all the dry blood that still stained the skin around her mouth and of her chin, she calmly walked down the stairs.

Sam had to admit that she had expected to find Ryan in the living room, but he wasn't there. In fact, he hadn't even entered the house; he was still outside on the front porch, and Sam could hear that he was on the phone again.

"But why did you let her go?" Ryan asked, for some reason sounding extremely anxious.

"_I didn't let her go! I had a wood piece driven right through my stomach! How was I supposed to stop her?" _the voice on the other end of the line sounded beyond annoyed.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry," her brother quickly apologized. "I just..." He seemed unable to finish that.

_"Ryan, don't worry, we'll find her," _the voice told him reassuringly. _"Did you find any sign of Sam?"_

"Actually, she's here with me," Ryan replied.

The voice let out a breath, sounding relieved. _"Good," _the voice replied. _"Now we just gotta find this one, then."_

"I'll be there as soon as possible," Ryan said.

"_Alright, then,"_ the voice replied, before hanging up.

Sam walked to the kitchen silently, and when she got there, she walked toward the fridge. She knew her mother well enough to know that one of the first things she'd do when she got home was go straight to the kitchen, which was why she had decided that was the place where she should leave the letter she'd written. Keeping that last thought in mind, she stuck the letter on the white fridge door using one of the refrigerator magnets she found there and turned around, walking back into the living room.

And much to her surprise, Ryan still hadn't come inside.

"Hey, what are you doing outside?" Sam asked as she walked toward the front door, her bag hanging from her right shoulder.

"What do you mean?" Ryan asked from the front porch.

"Why didn't you come inside?" Sam reformulated her question.

"Oh, because I can't go inside," he said calmly with a light shrug of his shoulders.

Sam frowned in confusion. "What do you mean by you _can't _come inside?" she asked.

"Because we can't go inside houses or apartments we weren't invited to go into by a human who lives there, or at least the person who owns said house or apartment," Ryan explained. "So as I was never invited in here, I just can't go in." As if to prove his point, Ryan tried to take one step foward, but just as he was about to go through the doorway, he stopped abruptly, as though there was some sort of invisible wall keeping him from entering the house. "See?" he asked.

Sam's eyebrows shot up at that, for that fact truly surprised her. "Okay, that's _really_ freaky," she commented, and a thought suddenly occured to her. "Wait, then how come I could come inside?" she asked, frowning.

"That's probably because you died in there, so you can go inside," he answered, shrugging lightly.

Sam didn't say anything about that, accepting her brother's explanation. She decided to change the subject as she walked out of the house and closed the front door behind her, locking it with her key.

"Was that Katelyn?" she asked as she tossed the key into her bag. "On the phone, I mean."

"Yeah, she had some problems with Melanie," Ryan told her. "I still don't know what happened, but Kate sounded really irritated. I just know that I need to get there as soon as possible."

"But is Melanie…?" she began, but found herself unable to finish as the two vampires walked out the front porch, descending the three wooden steps that led to the path connecting the house to the sidewalk.

"She kind of… ran away from the room where they were both in, and now Kate has absolutely no idea where she went." Ryan looked down as he spoke, and Sam could easily see the worry in his face.

Sam looked down as well, for she felt worried about her sister once again. "So, we're heading there now?" she asked, her voice low.

"Well, that's what I was planning to do," the male vampire told her as he looked back up at his sister.

"So what are we waiting for?" Sam asked, trying to ease the tense mood that had formed around them as they resumed walking toward the car Ryan had rented.

Three hours later, Sam and Ryan were on a plane to Jacksonville, and the sun had already started to rise.

Since the moment they had reached the airport, Sam had avoided looking at anyone. She almost killed two men in the airport, but Ryan made her calm down before anyone could notice her unusual behavior.

The first flashes of sunlight started to pass through the glass of the plane window, and as she stared at them, Sam lifted her hand slowly until it was completely covered by sunlight.

She had to admit that she had expected it to hurt, but it didn't. She felt nothing but the usual warmness of the sunlight against her skin. She smiled as she looked at the ring she was wearing.

_It looks like it works, _she thought.

During the whole plane flight, Sam didn't look up at anyone, or else she knew her gaze would move to their neck, and then she would… She shook her head vigorously, trying not to think about that. She felt her face changing against her will as her blood rushed to her eyes and she had to look down in order to hide her face from anyone who might be looking at her, her body suddenly growing rigid as she tried to regain control of herself. Noticing that, Ryan, who had been sitting right next to her, leaned toward her and wrapped an arm around her, trying to calm her down.

"We're almost there, just think about something else," he whispered into her hair. "Breathe in and out slowly. That usually helps." Sam did as her brother told her, and she soon felt her face going back to normal. If it wasn't for him, Sam knew that she'd have already killed everyone on that plane.

Her thoughts then wandered back toward her sister, who was now God knew where in Jacksonville… Without one of those rings to protect her from the sun and with absolutely no idea what had happened to her.

Sam looked out the plane window once again, though all she could do at that moment was simply hope that her sister was fine.

**Melanie Puckett**

_A few hours earlier…_

Melanie was sitting on the ground of an alley three blocks away from the University she studied at, her head in her hands and hot tears streaming down her face.

She had no idea what had just happened, she just knew that in that moment, in her room inside the University, there was a girl she had never even seen before in her life with a piece of wood driven right through her stomach while her best friend lay dead on the floor with a big and bloody bite mark on her neck.

Everything that had happened in the last few hours seemed like a blur that she'd rather not think about, but she just couldn't help doing it, for the memories kept coming back to her, repeating themselves over and over in her mind, no matter just how painful reliving those inside her head might be.

_She had just gotten home from a night out with some friends… There was this guy, who showed up suddenly while she was talking to her mother on the phone, and she remembered him… Amanda, her best friend, had introduced them one week before as her cousin, and she had said that he needed something that he had left with her and he waited for her to get it near the door inside the room… She just remembered that the guy had forced her to drink his blood from the cut he had done to himself on his wrist, and then everything became black… The next thing she knew was that she was lying on the floor, and there was a girl whom she had never seen before sitting right next to her… The girl kept insisting that she was dead, and after her friend, Amanda, who seemed to have been lying unconscious on the floor up until then, joined the conversation, the situation got completely out of hand…_

The sound of footsteps coming from the alley entrance made Melanie snap out of her pained thoughts, and she looked up curiously.

A dark figure was approaching her slowly, and Melanie was soon able to realize it was a man, even though there was barely any light in the alley. Melanie chose to simply ignore the man until he kneeled down right next to her.

"Hey… Are you crying?" the man asked, sounding as though he was truly worried. In fact, he looked like a nice guy… And that was precisely the reason why Melanie knew she'd regret what she'd do next, but she had no other choice.

She felt the black veins pressing themselves against the skin under her eyes, so she quickly looked down and muttered a response, holding herself still with all the strength she had in her, which was honestly not that much in that moment. "Just leave me alone." She didn't mean to be rude, not at all, but that guy needed to get out of there, and he needed to do it fast, or else…

"Calm down, just let me—"

"I mean it," she said through her gritted teeth. "Go away."

"But I just—" This time, he wasn't interrupted by Melanie talking, but because she was suddenly up on her feet and had pushed him against the brick wall right behind him, moving so fast that it all happened in a blur.

"What the hell?" he exclaimed when he saw her face and the fangs out.

"I'm so sorry," she managed to whisper, and the man could easily see the pain in her face, as well as hear it in her voice, but she then lost control completely and flew to his neck, an involuntary snarl escaping her lips coming from deep inside her throat as her fangs tore his skin open.

Fifteen minutes later, Melanie was running away from the alley she had been hiding in as she thought about where she could go. She had to admit that now she believed in the vampire story that girl had told her earlier, and she had heard enough vampire stories in her life to consider the idea of burning in the sun. She looked down at her watch and realized that she had less than one hour until the sun started to rise.

Just then she had an idea. About two months ago, Amanda had bought a small apartment near the University without her parents knowing about it for parties and such, but Melanie was the only person who knew about that until now. And now that Amanda was dead, no one else would ever know about it…

Melanie turned around and ran a few blocks back toward the University. Then, she turned left on a deserted street and ran about two more blocks, until she reached a simple but nice looking apartment building.

The doorman was asleep. Both his feet were resting on the desk right in front of him and he was snoring loudly, a vision that reminded Melanie of the doorman of Carly Shay's building back in Seattle, Lewbert. Ignoring that last thought, Melanie decided to take the stairs because she feared that the sound of the elevator would wake the doorman up, and after a little less than ten minutes, Melanie reached the third floor and headed to the apartment 3-F.

When she finally got there, she held the doorknob in her hands and, giving a chance to her intuition, she pushed the door open, and the doorknob broke with a low click. Melanie then walked inside quickly, before closing the apartment door silently behind herself.

The next thing she did was walk around the whole apartment making sure all the curtains and blinds of all windows were properly closed. She didn't want to take any risks.

The sun started to rise quickly; Melanie could see it because of the brightness showing right under the curtains. Out of curiosity, she stood right next to one of the living room windows, her back pressed against the wall right behind her while she slowly opened a small gap between the curtains, but as soon as sunlight covered her skin, she heard a sizzling sound and felt a horrible pain in her arm.

She pulled her hand back quickly, her eyes wide as she watched the burned skin of her arm heal in just a matter of seconds, soon looking as though nothing had happened.

_Burn in the sun; great, _she thought sarcastically.

Melanie pressed her back against the wall and slid down toward the floor slowly. When she reached the soft carpet, she rested the back of her head against the wall and, with her eyes closed, she tried to find an answer to one single question as more fresh tears started to roll down her cheeks.

_Why did this happen to me?_

But she couldn't think of any.

* * *

**Author's Note: Okay, so this was probably the longest chapter of the whole fic XD Seriously, it turned out A LOT longer than I thought it would...**

**You see? I told you the Seddieness would start in this chapter ;D**

**So, in the next chapter, we'll finally find out if Jorge is still alive! Yay! =P**

**I know Sam might seem a bit OOC sometimes, but well, as a vampire, her emotions are heightened, including sadness and hurt, so I figured that would be enough to get her a bit emotional.**

**Thank you all so much for reading! =)**

**xxiCarlyFanxx**


	3. Chapter 3: The Lost Sibling

**Author's Note: Yep, finally an update! =)**

**So, I know I said that the first three chapters were kind of the prologue, but I had to split up this one in two different chapters because it turned out WAY too long. So now, the four first chapters are kind of the prologue.**

**I'm trying to explain everything about the vampire species in the story itself just in case there are people who don't watch TVD reading this story, but I need to explain what mind compulsion is here for future chapters.**

**Mind compulsion is an ability exclusive of vampires, through which they can control someone else's mind. They can erase memories, change the way someone thinks, make someone do something by simply making eye contact with someone who's human and manipulate dreams. The dream manipulation can also be done with other vampires.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own iCarly or The Vampire Diaries!**

**Enjoy! =)**

* * *

Darkness Times

Chapter 3: The Lost Sibling

**Sam Puckett**

When Sam and Ryan arrived in Jacksonville, it was some time before noon. They took a cab at the airport and made their way to the western part of the city, which was where the University Melanie had been studying at was. When they were three blocks away from the University, they asked the cab driver to stop, paid him, and then watched as he drove away.

"Okay, so now what?" Sam asked as they started walking.

"Well, first I think I should take you to the apartment I bought around here, because I don't really think it's a good idea for you to be seen near the University. The police might be still there, and, well, you know, I don't think it would be a good idea for you to be spotted around here for a while, being Melanie's twin sister and all," he said, and Sam couldn't help but agree with him.

"I guess you're right," she said, and they kept walking.

Three blocks away from there, Ryan pointed at a pretty nice looking apartment building just a few steps ahead.

"I bought an apartment there a few weeks after I turned, and then Katelyn moved in with me. I had to choose between Jacksonville and Seattle, but even though I'd prefer Seattle because, well, it was where I had lived for the longest part of my life and it was where you guys lived, I chose Jacksonville because in Seattle, the chances of being spotted by one of you was bigger. And also, a friend of Melanie's has an apartment in that building, so I took it as a chance of seeing one of you a bit often, even though she didn't know about it," Ryan explained.

"Alright, if you weren't my brother and we weren't in this current situation, that would have sounded _really_ creepy," Sam commented, and Ryan couldn't disagree with that.

"I know," he said, chuckling, as the two of them walked inside the lobby. It was a nice looking building both on the inside and the outside. The walls inside the lobby were all painted with a really light cream color, and there was a painting on the farthest wall near the elevators, which was painted with strong colors and hung on the wall just behind a dark red couch.

"Hey, what's up, Mr. Puckett?" a man who couldn't be older than 20 years old and whom Sam assumed to be the doorman said happily from behind his desk.

"Hey, Gary!" Ryan greeted him back and shook his hand. "How's life going?"

"The same as always," Gary replied, before turning to look at Sam. "And this is…?" He eyed Sam curiously as he spoke.

"I'm Sam," Sam said, and he held out his hand, which she grabbed and shook, but maybe she put too much strength into it, since he made a face like he was in pain for a moment. But as soon as she let go of his hand, he seemed recover and pretended nothing had happened.

_Alright, I have to remind myself that I'm a bit... stronger now, _Sam thought, making a mental note to herself.

"It's nice to meet you, Sam," he said, smiling. He then looked at Ryan, his face making his thoughts completely obvious, but Ryan beat Sam to speaking up.

"She's my sister, Gary," he said, a hint of annoyance clear on his voice.

"Oh." Gary suddenly looked embarrassed as he looked back and forth between Sam and Ryan, maybe checking for some resemblance, and he probably found some, because he soon gave up on it. "Sorry," he apologized.

The two siblings then walked toward the elevators, and after a few seconds, the machine finally arrived at the lobby, and they walked inside it.

It didn't take long for them to reach the sixth floor, which was where Ryan lived, and when they did, Ryan led Sam to the apartment 6-H.

The apartment wasn't really big, but it looked like a nice place. It was a bit messy, but Sam seriously didn't mind; she had lived in a ten times worse messy house for almost her whole life, until her mother finally decided to start cleaning—

Sam stopped thinking about that in a second. She didn't want to keep thinking about the people she had left behind, even though she knew that she wouldn't be able to completely avoid doing that.

"So, do you think you'll be okay here while I go to the University and help Katelyn?" Ryan asked after Sam had laid her bag on the couch and looked around the place.

"Of course I will, Ryan," she said, slightly annoyed. "I don't need a babysitter, you know?"

"Okay, then," her brother replied. "I'll just call her, and then I'll be on my way there."

"Okay," Sam replied, looking around one more time, before walking to the kitchen. She scanned the room with her eyes for a moment, and then walked over to the fridge, curious to know what Ryan kept in there. It wasn't like he needed to stock food, so why did he even have one of those in his kitchen?

But as soon as she opened the door of the fridge, she found out the answer to that question.

Blood bags. Tons of those.

At that sight, she felt a familiar feeling building up inside of her, one that seemed to have been awaken by the sweet smell of blood coming from inside the fridge.

Hunger.

She wondered if Ryan would mind if she had one of those, but something else suddenly caught her attention as soon as she thought about her brother. She moved her gaze to the kitchen door and couldn't help but hear Ryan's conversation with Katelyn. She could hear them perfectly, even from another room.

"So, you're still there? Inside the University, I mean?" Ryan asked, and a female voice on the other end of the line replied quickly, sounding annoyed.

_"Of course not! Those guys arrived there a few hours ago, they're probably still investigating the body."_

"Body?" Ryan asked, sounding alarmed.

_"Melanie couldn't control herself,"_ Katelyn replied with a sigh._ "She killed a girl from her dormitory."_

"But why didn't you stop her?" Ryan asked.

_"Oh, come on, Ryan! Haven't I told you about the 'piece of wood driven through my stomach' part of the story yet?"_

"Alright, this story is pretty confusing." Ryan made a short pause as he sighed. "I'm heading there right now, so then you'll be able to explain everything to me exactly how it happened. But where are you, then?" he asked, and listened carefully as she explained her location. From what Sam gathered, she was somewhere a block away from the University, in some kind of café.

"I'll be there in ten," Ryan said, hanging up, and Sam instantly realized that he was approaching the kitchen.

Sam tried to pretend that she had been focusing all her attention on the fridge right in front of her, and when Ryan walked in the kitchen, she looked up at him innocently.

"So?" she asked him, even though she already knew exactly what he would say.

"I'm heading there now," he said, and she was sure he knew that she had been listening. "So, you're sure you're gonna be okay in here?" he asked again, but this time he was clearly joking, and Sam sent him a death glare, making him hold his hands up in a peace sign. "Okay, okay. But if you need anything just call me," he said, laughing. "You can get some if you want," he added, pointing at the fridge, referring to the blood bags. Without waiting for a reply, he turned around and walked toward the front door, but Sam called after him after a brief moment of hesitation.

"Hey, Ryan!" He turned around, pausing by the front door of the apartment. "Good luck," she said, sending him a small smile.

"Thanks," he replied, returning the gesture, before vanishing from sight as the door closed behind him.

As soon as Sam heard the front door closing, she was reminded of the hunger she was feeling when she breathed in the sweet smell coming from inside the fridge. She looked back at the blood bags, hesitating briefly before holding out her hand to grab one.

She opened the bag easily, tearing the small tube on the top of the bag without much effort. She stared at it for a brief moment, before hesitantly sucking on what had remained of the fragile tube like a straw. When the cold blood came in contact with her tongue, her breath hitched for a second, but after that, she resumed drinking hungrily, her animalistic vampire instincts taking over her once again. The blood from the bag was not as good as the fresh one—it tasted weird, and it did not engulf her in such a strong haze like the fresh blood did—but it was still blood, nonetheless.

And after barely a minute, the bag was empty.

She felt a lot better after that, but she had to resist the urge to get another bag from the fridge as she threw the empty bag on the trash can near the sink. Before her instincts could get the best of her, she closed the fridge door and made her way back to the living room.

Sam sighed as she let herself fall on the couch. That was her first moment alone after she had met Ryan the night before, and now she finally had the chance to think about everything that had happened and that Ryan had told her. But the more she thought about it, the more unbelievable the whole story seemed. She just couldn't believe how much her life had changed in just a few hours.

She wondered what her parents would tell everyone. That she ran away? That she died? She knew that maybe leaving was a bit coward of her, but what she did to her father just wouldn't get out of her head, and she couldn't risk everyone's life like that.

She tried to focus on another subject, and the first thing that crossed her mind was Melanie. Even though Sam couldn't see a way of Melanie still being alive—well, kind of alive, but still—she still hoped that they'd find her, and that they'd find her soon. Her sister didn't know anything about vampires when the sun started to rise, and that meant that if she had gone out in the sunlight...

Sam felt a chill going down her spine as that terrible thought slipped into her mind without her consent, and she shook her head lightly, trying to send that train of thought away.

She hoped Melanie had at least found somewhere to hide from the sun, and that she'd not leave that place until the sun had set again.

Even though Sam had never admitted it out loud, she truly loved her sister. Of course, Melanie was the exact opposite from everything she was; Melanie was all girly, caring, kind, a straight-A student and probably their parents' favorite twin, while Sam was always getting in trouble, pulling pranks, screaming at teachers, hating school and beating up nerds. But even with all those differences, they were still twin sisters, even if they didn't get along very well most of the time.

Sam sighed as she walked toward the nearest window and looked at the surroundings. She watched as several people walked past the building hurriedly, maybe late for an appointment, or maybe because they just couldn't bear to walk slowly. She couldn't help but think about those people; about them having their normal lives, everything like it should be, while her life had changed completely and against her will. She stared at the street below for a long time, silently watching all the people passing by, the cars driving by hurriedly and horning at each other when one of them suddenly stopped because of a kid crossing the street running after his little dog...

Just then Sam realized that it was December 18th, meaning that Christmas Eve was just a week away. Sam remembered how Christmas night at the Shays' apartment was, all of them together—Carly, Sam, Freddie, Spencer, Gibby, and even Mrs. Benson and T-Bo. That Christmas would be different, and she wondered if her friends already knew that, and if they did, how they felt about it. She hoped they didn't hate her if her mother told them that she had left, and that her mother wouldn't tell them that she was dead, even if that was partially true, since she didn't want her friends going through something like that because of her, especially during Christmas time.

Her thoughts then wandered back to Melanie, wondering what was going on with her, and also with Ryan and Katelyn. She felt a sudden urge to go out there to look for Melanie, since she felt horrible just standing there, doing nothing apart from waiting, but she knew that was not a very good idea.

She walked back to the couch, where she had left her bag, and started looking through its contents until she finally found her cell phone. After dialing the number Ryan had given her, she waited for her brother to pick up the call, which didn't take longer than five seconds.

_"Sam?"_ Ryan's voice sounded urgent, and Sam couldn't help but roll her eyes at that. It was funny how Ryan hadn't changed a bit in the last five years. He had been extremely overprotective of both Sam and Melanie back when he was still human, and clearly, he still acted exactly the same way. But at the same time it was funny, it could also get a bit annoying after a while.

"Yeah, it's me," she said, before qiuckly adding, "Don't get worried, I'm just calling to know how things are going."

_"Oh, okay,"_ Ryan replied, and she could hear that the worry in his voice was gone. _"Well, still no luck. Melanie is nowhere around, but we know that she was able to leave the University, because we found a corpse drained of blood three blocks away from there."_

That didn't make Sam feel any better. "I just wish I could be there, you know?" Sam admitted, the frustration she was feeling in that moment clear in her voice. "I feel so helpless just standing here, just waiting and hoping for her to be okay but doing absolutely nothing about it."

_"I know that,"_ Ryan said with a sigh, _"and I really wish you could be here but, well, I don't really think you want anyone who knew Melanie seeing you, right?"_

Sam couldn't disagree with him. "Yeah, you're right..." Sam agreed, and made a short pause before speaking up again. "I just hope she's fine, and that we find her soon. She's probably freaking out right now, not knowing what's going on and knowing that she killed someone."

_"Yeah, and not just 'someone'."_ Ryan sighed once again, before lowering his voice as he added,_ "She killed her best friend too."_

"Well, that makes it even worse," Sam admitted, and in that second something rang inside her head as she suddenly made a connection. Getting a bit excited, she hurried to ask, "Wait, you said that she killed her best friend, right?"

_"Uh, yes…"_ Ryan replied hesitantly.

"Would that best friend be the one who bought an apartment in this building?" Sam asked, getting even more excited as she repeated her idea over and over inside her head.

_"The one and only, but why—"_ It was clear that Ryan didn't know where Sam was trying to get with all those questions, but she didn't have the time or the patience to explain it to him at the moment, so she simply cut him off.

"What's the apartment number?" she asked.

_"3-F, but—"_ He, once again, didn't have the chance to finish his question.

"I'll explain it later!" Sam said hurriedly. "Call me if you find out anything else."

Ryan apparently just wouldn't drop it._ "But why did you—"_ And once again, he was cut off by Sam.

"I'll explain it later!" she insisted, her annoyance clear in her voice.

Finally, her brother gave in, sighing on the other end of the phone line as he said,_ "Okay, then."_

"See you later," Sam hurried to say, before hanging up without even waiting for a reply.

Sam re-thought her conclusion one more time, desperately hoping that she was right.

If Melanie's best friend was dead, then that meant that no vampire would need to be invited in to get inside the girl's apartment, so that was a place where Melanie could get in without any problems. And knowing that her friend was dead, Melanie could have had the idea to go there to hide.

But what still bothered Sam was not knowing if Melanie had really come to the conclusion that she needed to hide from the sun, because if she hadn't…

Sam pushed that thought away once more, and then focused on what she would do next. If Melanie had really gone to the apartment to protect herself from the sunlight, she was probably still there, which meant that she was only a few floors below where Sam was in that moment.

Getting both anxious and excited because of that last thought, Sam hurried to the front door, getting annoyed with herself for almost hitting the door fully because she still hadn't gotten used to that whole agility thing, and after just a few seconds, she was already marching toward the stairs. She knew that she wouldn't have enough patience to take the elevator, and she thought she could get to the third floor a lot faster if she took the stairs anyway, a thought that proved itself right after less than a minute.

She walked hurriedly through the hallway, eyeing the signs that hung next to each apartment door desperately, muttering the number of the one she was looking for repeatedly under her breath, until…

3-F.

Sam paused, staring at the black letters for a brief moment, her heart racing as the anxiety took over her once again. She hoped Melanie was in there, or else that would mean that her sister was probably… well, gone.

She held out her hand to touch the doorknob hesitantly, but when she did, instead of turning like she had expcted it to, the handle fell down to the floor with a loud thud, which echoed through the empty hallway for a few seconds. Sam pushed the door lightly, and it opened easily and silently.

_Alright, the doorknob was broken,_ Sam thought to herself._ Maybe that's a good sign._ She kept that thought in mind while walking inside.

Inside the apartment, everything was so silent that it made Sam grow a bit nervous, and the fact that she couldn't see any sign that someone had been in that place for a long time didn't make it any better. When she reached the living room, she looked around nervously, but nothing in the room seemed unusual.

Until…

She heard a movement coming from the kitchen and turned around quickly, fast enough to see a blurry figure coming toward her. She jumped aside so fast that even she didn't believe it, getting out of the way, and then turned around, before pushing whoever had tried to attack her against the nearest wall with her fangs out, black veins popping out of the skin under her eyes, which were now red where they were usually white, and a loud involuntary snarl coming from her throat.

But in the moment she recognized who this someone was, her expression softened, and her face was soon back to normal.

"S-Sam?" Melanie managed to stutter, her voice shaking and her eyes filled with tears.

"Melanie," Sam whispered, feeling like a hundred pounds had suddenly been lifted off her shoulders, and in the next moment, the twins were hugging each other tightly.

"Oh my gosh, I can't believe you're here!" Melanie said, sobbing onto Sam's shoulder, her face buried in her sister's golden curls. She had never felt so alone and afraid like she had in the past few hours, but now that her sister was there, she felt a little better, but only a little. She was still scared, and she still didn't understand anything that had happened to her the previous night.

Sam patted her sister's back for a long moment, not knowing what to say or if she should even say anything at all. She knew Melanie was scared and needed her right now, but she had never been very good with words, so she chose to remain silent for the time being.

It took Melanie some time until she was finally able to speak again, though her voice still came out between sobs. "I… I don't know what… what happened to me… and… you…" She wasn't able to complete that sentence, since she suddenly started sobbing even more.

"Mel, I…" Sam was about to say something, but the words got caught in her throat. She decided to stay just silent once again and kept patting Melanie's back, hoping that she'd calm down at least a little bit. And much to Sam's relief, her sister's sobbing lessened down after a few minutes, the sound gradually fading as the terrified twin seemed to slowly calm down.

When Melanie spoke again, however, her voice was still shaking. "Am I… am I really a…?" Melanie started, and even though she didn't finish her question, Sam already knew what she meant.

"Vampire?" Sam said lowly against her sister's hair, and the other twin nodded lightly in response. "Yes," she answered slowly and hesitantly, slightly afraid of Melanie's reaction.

But instead of crying even harder than before like Sam had expected her to, Melanie simply pulled away from her and stared right into her eyes. "Why did this happen?" she asked, her voice barely a whisper. Melanie's eyes were still completely full of tears, though she was now clearly trying to hold those back, as if she had grown tired of crying and now wanted to look stronger than she was actually feeling on the inside.

Sam didn't say anything at first; she simply stared at her sister silently for a brief moment, until she finally walked toward the couch and sat down on it, before patting the spot right next to her, gesturing for Melanie to join her, and the other twin hesitantly did so.

Melanie stared at her sister expectantly for a second, clearly waiting for the twin to clear everything up to her and help her understand what had happened to her the night before.

At the sight, Sam took in a deep breath, before she finally started talking.

**Jorge Puckett**

_At the Seattle Medical Center…_

Jorge opened his eyes as the light sunshine from the now setting sun entered the room through the half open curtains. He looked around nervously, not knowing where he was. The first thing he noticed was that he was lying on a bed, and that he was surrounded by some kind of machines…

That was when he realized that he was in a hospital room.

At first he couldn't remember what had happened, but as he tried to remember, all the memories from the previous night came rushing into his mind, and for a brief moment, he believed that maybe it had all been a horrible nightmare. But when he moved his hand up to his neck and felt bandages covering the spot where Sam had bit him in those unwanted memories, he knew that it hadn't been a nightmare.

_Sam and Melanie._

The twins' names echoed inside his head and he suddenly felt like getting up from that stupid hospital bed, not caring about whatever the nurses said. He needed to know what had happened to his daughters.

But before he could do anything at all, the door of the room was pushed open slowly and a nurse walked in.

She was looking down at the clipboard she was holding in her hands as she made her way into the room, and it was just when she was halfway to where Jorge was that she looked up at him. "Oh, good, you're awake," the red-haired woman said, flashing him a tired smile. The smile, however, did not reach her eyes, in which Jorge noticed there was nothing but sadness. She looked vaguely familiar to him. "There's someone here who'd like to see you, Mr. Puckett," the woman added, gesturing to the door of the room.

And that was when Pam walked in.

Jorge had to admit that she looked horrible. She had dark bags under her eyes, which were red and puffy, like she had been crying for a long time, and her hair was messier than he had ever seen it. But above all, she looked tired, which immediately told Jorge that she had not slept at all in a long time.

"Jorge, thank god! You're awake!" Pamela exclaimed as she walked as fast as she could with the crutches she was using toward the bed he was lying on, a white cast wrapped around her right leg.

"I'd better get going now, Pamela," the nurse suddenly announced. "I've already told Emily to take my place." She closed her eyes, letting out a sad sigh as she added, "I gotta tell them." As she spoke, her voice cracked a bit for some reason. Jorge was sure he knew her from somewhere, but he couldn't remember from where.

"Thank you, Marissa," Pam said. "And good luck."

The nurse simply nodded in response, the sadness in her eyes now even more evident than it had been before. She cast one last look over at Jorge, and then finally left the room, leaving the two of them alone.

Jorge watched her leave in silence, his brows furrowed as he struggled to remember where he knew her from. "Uh…" He turned his head to look at Pam. "Who is she?" he asked. "I mean, I think I know her from somewhere, but I can't remember where…"

Pam didn't look up at him as she answered his question. "She's Marissa Benson," she explained lowly, but that answer didn't make things clearer for him at all. Noticing that, she added, "Fredward Benson's mother."

"And who's Fredward Benson?" Jorge asked, still just as confused as he had been before.

Pam sighed loudly, hesitating for a brief moment before she finally said, "One of Sam's best friends." It seemed like she didn't feel comfortable with saying Sam's name, and that made Jorge a bit uncomfortable as well, which caused him to decide against saying anything in response to that.

There was a silent moment between the two, and the tension could easily be noticed in the air around them, for they both knew that the subject they would talk about next was extremely delicate and complicated.

The silent moment lasted for a few minutes, until Jorge, noticing that Pam wouldn't say anything if he didn't, decided to speak up.

"Pam, I need to know what happened after I… blacked out," he said, going straight to the point, but avoiding to mention the part of Sam biting him.

"You mean what happened to Sam?" Pam asked, her voice suddenly earning a somewhat harsh tone.

"Well, actually, I wanna know everything that happened," Jorge admitted. "To you, to Sam, to Melanie..." He shook his head lightly, before adding, "Everything."

Pam hesitated once again, her gaze falling to the floor. Jorge had to admit that she was acting pretty weird_—_weird even to her_—_but he decided not to comment anything about that… yet.

It took Pam several seconds, but she was finally able to speak again after a moment. "After you went upstairs because we both heard a scream…" She closed her eyes, as if trying to send some unwanted image away from her mind. "Well, I started to get worried, since you were up there for a lot longer than I thought you should and…" She opened her eyes once again, but still refused to look up at Jorge. "I wanted to go up there to check if there was something wrong, but I couldn't because of that stupid broken leg and…"

She made a short pause, as if trying to organize her thoughts as she let out a pained sigh. "After a few minutes, Sam ran down the stairs and she was at the door in a blur, and when she turned around to look at me her face was… covered in blood. And then she left, without a word. I started to panic, but I felt completely helpless, since I couldn't get up from that stupid couch." She shook her head, as though ashamed. "After a few more minutes, I was finally able to reach the phone by dragging myself, and I called an ambulance, but…" Her voice drifted off, and she suddenly grew silent, as if unable to go on.

"But what?" Jorge decided to ask, hoping that she wouldn't resist too much on answering. But much to his annoyance, she didn't say anything, pretending that she hadn't heard him. But Jorge wouldn't give up that easily. "Pam, look at me," he said firmly, and she finally looked up at him. Now, Jorge could see just how red her eyes were and how tired she really was. "What were you going to say?" he asked, and this time, she couldn't pretend that she hadn't heard him.

She stared at him for a long moment, still hesitating, until she finally gave in with a sigh, but what she said wasn't exactly what Jorge had been expecting to hear. "Jorge, I think we should leave all this behind and… just... forget about what happened, okay?" she said, looking straight into his eyes, but instead of finding the understanding she wanted so dearly to see in them, she found confusion instead.

"What?" was all Jorge was able to let out after a long moment of silence.

"You heard me, Jorge," she said, clearly tying to sound firm, but her voice gave away the fact that she was actually on the verge of tears. "And I meant exactly what I said."

"But why are you saying this? I mean…" Jorge paused, a thought suddenly crossing his mind, sending a wave of anxiety right through him. "Where is she?" he hurried to ask, his eyes slightly wide. But once again, Pam didn't answer. "Where is she, Pamela?" he repeated, more firmly this time, and the use of her full name made Pam react.

"I don't know, alright? I have no idea!" she exclaimed, moving away from him with the help of her crutches.

"Wait, are you saying that she…?" He didn't finish that question, the single thought of it already too painful for him to bear.

"Ran away?" Pam asked, as if reading his thoughts. "That's exactly what I'm saying."

Jorge had to look down for a moment, his mind struggling to process what he had just heard. Sam had run away? But why? To where?

"But how can you know that she ran away? Maybe she just needs some time alone or…" he started, gripping tightly onto that last hope, but he paused when he looked up and realized that Pam was trying to get something out of her pocket. It took her some time to get whatever she was trying to get in her shaky hands, but when she did, Jorge saw that it was a piece of paper. Actually, it looked like a page that had been yanked out of a notebook. And when Pam approached him with it, he saw that he was right, but he couldn't imagine the content of that piece of paper until he read it.

"What's this?" he asked as Pam held out the paper for him to grab.

"Read it and you'll understand," she said simply, refusing to explain any further.

Jorge looked down at the paper, starting to read whatever was written on it. And after reading a few lines, he realized it was a letter… from Sam.

When he was done reading it for the first time, he read it all over again, and then again, and again, until the meaning of it really sunk in. Sam was gone, and she didn't plan on coming back. She thought that it would be better for everyone if she kept a distance from them all. Jorge shook his head, trying to clear up his thoughts and get some sense out of that. Why did she think that it would be better for her to simply leave everything behind? How could things be any better that way? How could...

And that was when it hit him.

She was probably afraid of how people would react to what she had become.

That did make sense, but even though that was all Jorge could think of at the moment, he still felt like there was something else behind Sam's departure that she, for some reason, had decided to not mention in that letter. However, he soon dropped that line of thought, for the last part of the letter deeply intrigued him.

_Don't worry about Melanie, I'll get to her._

But how could Sam even know about Melanie also turning into a vampire? And how could Sam sound like she understood what had happened to her so well? There was something not right about all that, but Jorge did not get the chance think about it all further in that moment, since Pam's voice suddenly broke him out of his thoughts and brought him back to reality.

"You see? We should all forget about Sam and Melanie and…" She shook her head, as if trying to clear up her thoughts. Jorge knew that she was trying to play the strong and determined one, but she sounded more desperate and about to cry than anything else. "Well, live on."

"How can you say something like that, Pam?" Jorge asked, truly shocked by her words. How could she even consider something like that? "And_—_" Just as he was about to say something else, another thought suddenly occurred to him. "Wait, do you know anything about Melanie?"

"All I know is that they didn't find her," she replied harshly. "Just a dead girl, Amanda, with a big, bloody bite mark on her neck." Pam sounded like she was about to freak out, and Jorge knew that only something huge, life changing and truly terrible could get her that way.

And unfortunately, that description fit perfectly in their current situation.

"But then what? You'll just give up on them?" he asked in disbelief, trying to make her understand just how crazy she sounded. "You want to pretend that they never existed?"

"Yes," she said, sounding a bit more controlled now. "I've done a lot of thinking during these past two day you were unconscious, and I came to a decision."

"Wait, two days?" Jorge asked, his eyes widening with shock. "I've been unconscious for two days?"

"Yes," she replied. "The doctors said you were lucky to have survived such a great blood loss." She shook her head lightly. "You almost died, Jorge, because you lost too much blood." She paused, letting out a humorless chuckle. "Correction," she began, "Because_ she_ sucked too much blood out of you." She said the word 'she' in such a way that it was hard to believe that she was referring to her own daughter.

Jorge had to admit he was surprised that he had been unconscious for so long, but he didn't have the chance to say anything about it, because Pam suddenly went on.

"Don't act like I'm insane or anything, Jorge, because you know I'm right," she said, her voice earning a harsh tone once again.

"No, you're not!" Jorge shook his head, still finding it pretty hard to believe everything he was hearing. "Pam, are you even listening to what you're saying?"

"Jorge, I've been up throughout the last two entire nights because I couldn't… because just I couldn't stop crying! And during that whole time, I thought about everything that happened, and… I've made my decision, alright?" She paused, closing her eyes for a moment, and when she spoke again, her voice was much calmer and controlled than before. "I've decided to… live on and… that both Sam and Melanie are gone. They're gone, and never coming back, and we just have to accept that."

"Pam, you seriously need to understand that_—_" Jorge started to protest, but Pam cut him off.

"Understand what, Jorge?" she asked, her voice suddenly earning a somewhat exasperated tone. "Understand that our daughters are not even human beings anymore? That they were turned into monsters? And don't look at me that way, because you know that I didn't say anything wrong. They're not human anymore, and they're not my daughters." And with that, she turned around and left the room through the open room door without a single glance behind.

Jorge laid his head back on the pillow and sighed loudly, closing his eyes shut. Pam was totally out of her mind, he was sure of it. The happenings of that horrible night had messed up her emotions, and she probably couldn't think straight at the moment. He just hoped that she would realize how wrong she really was soon, before it was too late.

His thoughts then wandered back to the twins, causing yet another wave of pain and despair to hit him with full force. He still couldn't believe that what had happened to them was really real. During his whole life, he had never even imagined that something like that could ever happen to his daughters. He had hunted vampires for about five years now, and he could have never imagined that one day both his daughters would become what he dreaded most in the world.

He had always thought that vampires were heartless and emotionless creatures that only existed to kill people and create chaos, but how could he think that of his own daughters? He just couldn't.

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the sound of a sudden movement near him. He opened his eyes quickly and looked around frantically, startled by the sudden sound, but he found nothing out of the ordinary. The only thing that was moving in the room were the curtains as the light breeze coming from the night outside made them float in the air just slightly…

_Wait a minute,_ he thought abruptly, remembering that the window, that was now open, had been closed during his whole conversation with Pam, and he couldn't remember anyone opening it.

He thought he had seen something moving on his right, and looked in that direction abruptly, but he saw nothing there too. He then heard something moving in the window direction, and when he turned around, he could have sworn he had seen blonde curls disappearing out the window and into the darkness that surrounded the hospital.

He shook his head frantically.

_Impossible…_

But as soon as that thought crossed his mind, he noticed something different. The letter he had read earlier wasn't the only thing resting on the small table next to his bed. There was another piece of paper there, and when he read what was written on it, his eyes widened in surprise.

_Don't worry about us. Melanie and I are fine._

_~Sam_

That was it, simply it. And that was the moment when he made his own decision.

He'd find Tyler, and he'd make the vampire pay for everything he had done by driving a stake right through his heart.

* * *

**Author's Note: So, Jorge is alive! Yay! But he wants revenge, which might not turn out really well... ;)**

**The next chapter is pretty much Seddie centered, so be patient! =)**

**Please tell me what you think so far! I have no idea if I'm doing a good job with this story...**

**Well, thank you so much for reading! ****=)**

**xxiCarlyFanxx**


	4. Chapter 4: Painful Goodbyes

**Author's Note: Thank you all so much for the amazing feedback! =)**

**The last part of this chapter might make your eyes tear up a bit, especially if you're listening to Skinny Love by Birdy while reading it (the song from Jenna's funeral on TVD).**

**Disclaimer: I don't own iCarly or The Vampire Diaries.**

**Enjoy! ;)**

* * *

Darkness Times

Chapter 4: Painful Goodbyes

**Sam Puckett**

Sam walked away from the hospital hurriedly. She didn't want to be seen by anyone who knew her, so she walked through the dark Seattle streets making sure there was nobody known around, eyeing her surroundings constantly. She had no idea what her mother had told everyone about her to explain her sudden absence, but no matter what that was, she didn't want to be spotted anywhere, especially if her mother had told them all that she was dead. The single thought of it was already painful, and even though that would be the best choice and what Sam thought Pam had chosen as the best cover story possible, she hoped her mother had come up with something else. She didn't want people to suffer over her death when there was actually no reason to shed a single tear because of her.

She felt glad that she had decided not to bring Melanie along with her and that her twin didn't even know that she was in Seattle right now. She knew her sister well enough to know that Melanie wouldn't be able to leave if she had seen their parents, as well as heard everything they'd said.

Sam made her way to Bushwell Plaza still looking around, making sure nobody known saw her, and when she finally got there, instead of walking inside the lobby, she walked toward the side of the building and into an alley. Thanks to her new supernatural abilities, it was extremely easily for her to jump up in the air and grab the metal ladder than hung a few meters above the ground, before effortlessly climbing up onto the fire escape of the first floor.

The way to the eighth floor of the apartment building was extremely easy as well, and she was there in less than a minute. She soundlessly moved to the hallway fire escape and peered inside the window, hoping not to meet anyone she knew. And as soon as she stepped inside the building, she heard Mrs. Benson's voice coming from inside Carly's apartment, so she closed her eyes shut and paid attention to what the woman was saying.

"…_she believes it was some kind of psychopath who wanted revenge on something about Jorge's job as a cop,"_ Sam heard Mrs. Benson's shaky and low voice, which cracked a few times during her speech, and the vampire instantly felt a chill running down her spine. She had a feeling she knew what Mrs. Benson was talking about.

There was a long silent moment in the room, and Sam briefly wondered who was in there with her.

"_It can't be true!" _Carly's voice cut through the silence like a knife, her voice sounding loud and desperate, and Sam easily could tell that she was crying. _"I__t just can't!"_

"_Come here, kiddo,"_ Spencer said, and he sounded like he was crying too, even though he was clearly trying to sound comforting.

Mrs. Benson's voice suddenly reached Sam's ears once again. "_I'm sorry for being the one to tell you all this, but… I met Pamela and Jorge at the hospital. She has a broken leg and Jorge was seriously injured and almost died. And a girl, Melanie's roommate in Jacksonville, was killed too."_

There was another silent pause. The only sound that could be heard was Carly's muffled sobbing, and Sam figured that Spencer was probably hugging her, and that she was probably crying into his chest, which explained why the girl's constant crying sounded muffled.

"_This sounds so… unreal. I feel like she's just gonna walk through that door right now saying that she's fine, and that she's still here,"_ Sam heard Gibby say, and she was surprised by how much pain she could hear in his voice.

"_I know… It doesn't seem right… I mean, I watched Sam grow up and I had known her sister for a really long time as well… I just can't believe they're really dead."_ Spencer's voice was barely a whisper.

Sam heard the sound of someone moving suddenly, followed by a low whisper as the person announced, _"I need some air."_

She moved quickly, hiding herself in less than a second behind the corner of the hallway, right before the front door of the Shays' apartment was yanked open and closed shut loudly as someone left that apartment and walked hurriedly inside his own right across the hall without even looking back.

Freddie.

"_I'll go talk to him,"_ Gibby said lowly, and then left the Shays' apartment as well and went after his friend, opening the unlocked Bensons' front door, before walking inside and closing the door shut calmly behind him.

Without putting much thought into her actions, Sam quickly stepped out onto the hallway fire escape she had come from and moved to the fire escape in Freddie's room, but the moment she did that, she regretted it.

Freddie's room door suddenly flew open, and Sam had only two seconds to move from that floor balcony to the one of the floor above before Freddie came out onto the fire escape, and luckily, he didn't see her.

**Freddie Benson**

Freddie stepped out onto the fire escape quickly and finally let the tears fall freely. He couldn't believe it, he just couldn't. Sam couldn't be dead. She _couldn't_.

When Freddie first met Sam, he had thought that they'd never be able to get along, considering that they were complete opposites. But as time went by, he learned that she wasn't simply that tough and tomboy girl she had always tried to let on, and he soon got to know who she really was as the two of them started to grow closer. It took a few years, but there finally came a time when they could actually be considered close friends, especially after they shared their first kiss.

After that kiss, Freddie had been extremely confused, since he didn't seem to feel the same way he used to for Carly anymore, and after the whole 'saving Carly's life' thing, he was sure he was completely over her. What he had felt for the brunette girl had been nothing more than a crush, probably because she had been the first girl to ever be willing to become his friend. The love he had believed to once have for her, however, never truly existed.

What had genuinely confused him, though, was the fact that as time passed, he started noticing Sam a lot more, and they sometimes spent time together, not only with Carly. And soon enough, he began to develop feelings for her. At first, he tried to ignore them, but after several weeks in denial he finally accepted the fact that he had fallen in love with Sam.

After the other kiss they shared the night they were going off to college, Freddie was determined to finally tell her how he felt. Of course, it took him several sleepless nights in college to finally be able to build up the courage to open up to her, and when he finally did, he made the decision to tell her the truth as soon as they met again. That was, when the two of them were left alone.

Two nights ago, he wasn't able to tell her because they hadn't had a moment alone, and they were all really tired because they had all just arrived in Seattle, so he had decided that he'd do it the next day, but Sam didn't show up and wouldn't answer her phone for the past two days.

And now he knew why.

His thoughts were interrupted by Gibby joining him out in the fire escape without a word, his eyes full of tears.

"Hey, dude…" Gibby said, but Freddie didn't respond; he just kept staring ahead at the night that surrounded the building, though his eyes were empty, as if they were not really focused on anything in particular. Gibby shifted his weight uncomfortably from one leg to the other, before asking, "How are you feeling?"

This time, Freddie responded, but his voice sounded pretty harsh as he said, "You, of all people, should know how I'm feeling right now, Gibby." He didn't mean to be rude, but he couldn't help it. Gibby was the only person in the world who knew about what he felt for Sam because they had gone off to the same University and they had spent almost all of their free time together, so they had become even closer friends than they had already been before.

Gibby sighed. "Listen, Freddie," he began, his voice low and somewhat pleading, "Just try to calm down and—"

Freddie cut him off before he could finish that. He knew that Gibby was just trying to help, but he couldn't help the way he was acting. It seemed like something had taken over him, and he just couldn't think straight anymore. "How am I supposed to calm down?" Freddie exclaimed angrily. "Sam, the girl I love, is dead! And you're asking me to calm down?" Gibby took one step back at the sound of his voice, which made Freddie finally realize that he had gone a bit too far. "I'm sorry, Gib," he quickly apologized, his voice a bit more controlled now, "I just… I just need some time alone, okay?"

"That's okay, dude," Gibby said, holding his arms up a bit in a peace sign. "I'm leaving, then." And with that, the boy turned around and left the fire escape without another word.

Freddie simply stood there for a moment, but soon sighed as he sat down on the window ledge right behind him and resumed crying, his head in his hands.

**Sam Puckett**

Sam couldn't believe what she had just heard.

Freddie loved her.

That thought echoed inside her mind about a thousand times before its meaning actually sunk in, and when it did, Sam felt a mixture of joy and sadness building up inside of her. She felt joyful at first because she finally knew that Freddie loved her back, and she had been waiting to hear that for a long time now, but the sadness took over her instantly when she realized that his feelings for her would only make things a lot more difficult for him. It would be a lot harder for him to forget her and let her go.

And also, Sam had never told him how she felt about him, and now that he thought she was dead, she'd never be able to tell him.

Sam felt horrible. Freddie was going through so much suffering because of her, hurting because of her death right in front of her eyes, and there was nothing she could do to make things better. The only thing she could do was simply stand there and watch as Freddie broke down into tears right in front of her.

She felt her eyes tearing up as she watched Freddie's unspoken suffering, and she soon realized that she couldn't bear to watch it anymore, or else she'd do something she'd regret later. But she couldn't just leave knowing that he was still there, and that he'd probably never be able to get over her 'death'. She wouldn't be able to live with herself if she turned her back on him now, leaving him completely destroyed without even looking back, or at least not without talking to him one last time.

If she could at least tell him how she felt… But if she showed herself to him, he'd never let her go, she was sure of it. She knew him well enough to know that.

_But what if…_

That was when an idea hit her. She thought about it for a long, silent moment, trying to figure out if she really should do it, and if she'd actually be able to do it right. Would it really work? She couldn't be sure, but the idea was pretty appealing to her, and after few more minutes of thinking it through, she finally came to a decision.

She'd do it.

Sighing, Sam started to walk down the metal staircase, being careful not to make a sound and to keep herself in the dark, making sure that Freddie would only see her when he was supposed to.

**Freddie Benson**

Freddie didn't move an inch for a long time, his head in his hands as the tears came rushing, falling nonstop. He couldn't accept the fact that Sam was dead. It just couldn't be possible; it just couldn't be happening. It seemed too unreal to be true, and he just couldn't wrap his mind around that idea. It seemed like that was all a terrible nightmare, and that he'd wake up in a few minutes and realize that none of that was really happening. But deep down, he somehow knew that wouldn't happen.

He shook his head, letting out a shaky breath. This was the worst day of his entire life. Sam, the love of his life; the only girl he had ever imagined himself spending the rest of his life with, was gone. Forever. And there was absolutely nothing he could do about it.

If he could just go back in time to make things go on differently, he would go with no hesitation. Maybe if he had told her what he felt for her the night they had come back from college, then she would not have gone home so early and she wouldn't have been killed. But he couldn't do that. He couldn't change the past, even if he was willing to give anything to be able to do it in that moment.

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a sound coming from the metal staircase on his right, and he quickly stood up, startled. It took him a few seconds, but he soon distinguished a dark figure standing only a few steps away from him in the shadows of the fire escape. The figure took two steps forward, until the gloomy moonlight made it possible for Freddie to recognize who it was, and when he did, his breath got caught in his throat, his eyes wide with shock.

"S-Sam?" he managed to stutter out after the shock wore off a bit, but he still couldn't believe his eyes.

Sam didn't answer; she just stood there for a few more seconds, before taking another step toward him.

"How…?" Freddie had millions of questions running through his mind in that moment, but he couldn't put any of those into words. Everything remained silent for over a minute, during which the only sound being heard was the one made by a car eventually driving by the street several meters below where they were.

**Sam Puckett**

Sam could see that there was a lot going through Freddie's mind in that moment, so she decided to wait for him to at least calm down a bit before speaking.

"How… how can you be here?" Freddie asked when he finally found his voice again.

"That's not important right now," Sam said, taking that as a cue for her to start what she had decided to do.

"How can you even say that? Freddie asked, clearly shocked by what he had just heard. "Of course it is important! Everyone thinks you're dead! But you're not!"

Sam's eyes started to tear up again, but she held the tears back. "Freddie, just listen to me, okay?" she asked as she approached him even more, only pausing when she was standing just a few inches away from him. "I know this is hard for you to understand, but I need to go." For some reason, her voice came out weak, but she still managed to add, "It will be better this way."

Freddie's face was suddenly filled with confusion. "What the hell are you talking about?" he asked, exasperated.

Sam could understand why he felt that way, but she went on with what she had planned to do, nonetheless. She had to do this. "I know this can sound weird and not make any sense at all to you, but I need to leave, Freddie, for reasons that would take too long to be explained. But please, believe when I say this..." She paused, taking in a deep breath. "It's for everyone's own good. I can't risk the lives of anyone I care about by staying."

The confusion that had been clear in Freddie's features grew even more intense. "Are you insane?" he asked her, his brows furrowed.

Sam could see that he was trying to hold a little bit of his exasperation back, but she knew she couldn't back off now. "And also," she went on, ignoring Freddie's comment, "I couldn't leave without telling you something." She rested both her hands on each one of his arms, caressing his skin softly with her thumbs. She knew she was risking a bit too much by standing so close to him, especially because of the sound of his heartbeat ringing loudly in her ears, but she was doing her best as she tried to ignore the hunger that was threatening to emerge from deep inside of her. She didn't back even a single inch away from him, savoring every single second of what she believed to be the last moment they'd ever share.

"I love you, Freddie," she finally whispered, her eyes filling up with tears once again, though she refused to let them fall. "I really love you, and I've been trying to find a chance to tell you this, but I didn't, and…" She shook her head lightly, her shoulders rising and falling once in a weak shrug. "Now it's too late."

Freddie's face softened at each word that left the blonde girl's mouth, his eyes scanning her face frantically as he struggled to understand what was going through her mind in that moment. "Why is it too late?" Freddie's voice was barely a whisper as he moved one of his hands up and rested it on Sam's cheek. "Sam, what are you keeping from me?" he asked, his voice a low whisper. "Please, tell me. I just want to understand what's going on here."

Sam, however, still refused to tell him the truth about what she had become. "I really wish I could tell you, Freddie, but..." She shook her head once again. "You wouldn't understand it if I did." She simply eyed him for a moment, a thought suddenly crossing her mind. Sam considered it for a moment, suddenly confident that she had lost her mind because of what she was about to do, but she honestly didn't care at the moment. "But... there's something I want and I can do," she admitted.

"And what would that be?" Freddie asked curiously.

Sam, instead of answering right away, leaned in slowly until her mouth was merely two inches away from his, his hot breath tickling her lips and making her not capable of backing off anymore, his addicting scent making her want to go through with her crazy idea even more.

"This," she whispered, before pressing her lips softly against his.

Freddie tensed up at that, clearly surprised, but soon enough, there was no hesitation in the kiss, each one of them hungry for more at each second as their lips moved in complete synchrony, both of them savoring each other's mouth urgently, as if they'd never be able to do it again, which was probably true, anyway.

The kiss was long and passionate, and made them both be even more sure about their love for each other. The desire to go on got stronger at each second. The world around them didn't matter anymore; the only thing that mattered was that moment, and nothing could wake them up from the trance they both suddenly found themselves lost in.

Freddie's arms found their way around Sam's waist, pulling her as close to him as possible. Sam's arms were wrapped around his neck, pulling his face even closer to hers as she ran her hands through his dark brown hair. They had never been so close to each other before, and the feeling of having their bodies pressed against each other's like that was completely ecstatic for both of them.

Sam's tongue explored Freddie's mouth hungrily, like she was trying to memorize it as he did the same with hers, before they both started an endless battle for dominance.

They couldn't tell if the kiss lasted for only a few seconds or for several minutes, but they knew that they'd never forget it. They eventually pulled away from each other, the need for oxygen finally taking over both of them. Sam could hear their hearts beating like crazy, and they were both breathing noticeably heavier than ever before.

But for Sam, there was something else going on. There was something growing inside of her; something that seemed to have been asleep for a long time now, but that had suddenly started to grow and threatened to take over her at any moment.

The sound of Freddie's heartbeat was something she just couldn't ignore anymore, and her mind started to become foggy as her gaze moved down from his lips to his neck, eyeing the easily seen veins hungrily, imagining how it would feel to taste his blood...

She started to lean in once again without even noticing it, but this time, she wasn't aiming at his mouth—his neck had her full attention now. When her lips were merely an inch away from his soft skin, she breathed in his scent deeply, which made her lose the very little control she still had inside of her.

Before even realizing it, her fangs were out, brushing against his soft skin and making a really small cut on it, through which a single drop of crimson blood found its way out of the vein it had been passing through.

"Sam…" Freddie began, still sounding a little out of breath, "What the hell are you doing?" Freddie's voice seemed so distant that it sounded like it wasn't even real, or that it was coming from somewhere so far away that it wasn't important right now. It could wait...

Sam licked the small drop of blood off his skin with the tip of her tongue, savoring it slowly and realizing that it tasted over a hundred times better than she had imagined it would. His blood wasn't like the others'; his was even more addicting and sweet, and it made her crave for more so much it hurt. She didn't want more; she _needed_ more.

"Sam!" Freddie exclaimed when Sam suddenly pressed his back against the brick wall right behind him, which allowed him to see her face clearly because of the moonlight, his face showing nothing but pure shock because of what he was seeing, but in that moment, Sam didn't care. She wasn't herself.

Freddie had no time to react as Sam's fangs were suddenly pressed against his neck, cutting through his skin like two tiny daggers, causing him to groan and grit his teeth tightly together at the pain that flashed through his nerves.

He was completely paralyzed. Not only because Sam was holding him in place so firmly it even hurt a little, but also because of the shock that had washed over him. He couldn't believe what he had just seen Sam's face become. She didn't look like the girl he had fallen in love with, neither like his best friend. It really hurt him to admit it, but with those red eyes, black veins popping out of her skin and pointy fangs coming out of her gums, she truly looked like a monster.

Freddie started feeling weaker at each second that went by, but Sam just wouldn't let go of him. He couldn't understand what was going on, since it all just didn't make any sense at all to him, but there was one thing he was sure of—Sam needed to let go of him, before it was too late.

He tried to push her off him, but he soon realized that was completely useless, since she seemed to be unbelievably stronger than him, so he bet on the only thing he had left to do.

"Sam… you're hurting me…" he managed to whisper, but apparently, his pleading words had no effect on her. He felt his strength slipping away from him quickly, and he knew he didn't have much time left. "Sam… let go… please…" That was the moment he was sure that he would die, so he completely let go of her and closed his eyes...

Sam's eyes shot open abruptly the moment she realized what was going on. Using all the strength she could gather, she finally let go of Freddie, pulling her head away from his neck, but resting her forehead on his right shoulder, breathing heavily.

No word was said for a long moment, during which Sam tried to calm herself down and Freddie tried to find his voice to speak again.

"What was that about?" Freddie asked, his voice coming out a lot weaker than he meant it to because of his sudden lack of strength.

Sam leaned back and away from Freddie slowly and hesitantly, and when she finally looked up at him and met his gaze, he could see pain and regret clear in her eyes, which made him even more confused than he already was, but he was glad to see that her face had gone back to normal.

"Freddie... I'm... I'm so sorry, I..." Sam couldn't find words to describe how she felt in that moment, so she found herself able to do nothing but shake her head from one side to the other, disbelief concerning what she had just done clear in her features.

For only a few seconds, she had actually believed that there was a chance things could work out; that she wouldn't need to leave everything behind, and that she could stay and simply let things be; try to have her life back, even though that sounded pretty much impossible. But now, she finally realized how wrong she had been to think that.

She couldn't believe she had hurt Freddie. He was the person she cared about the most in that world and the last one she ever wanted to see hurt, but she had just nearly killed him, which only served to make her grow even surer that she really should do what she was about to do.

"Sam, are you going to explain to me what the hell is going on or not?" Freddie's voice broke her off her trance, his tone truly desperate as he still waited for some sort of explanation.

Sam sighed. "Freddie, listen to me," she began, her voice growing low all of a sudden, "Just listen." She took in a deep breath as she tried to organize her suddenly racing thoughts. "I came here to check on you guys for the last time before leaving, since I can't risk your lives by staying here anymore..." She shook her head, looking down for a moment as she added, "Not after what I became."

When she looked back up at him, she realized that Freddie was about to interrupt her, so she held her right index finger up, quieting him down before he even had the chance to speak.

"No, don't," she pleaded, "Please don't say anything. It will only make things even more difficult." She could see that Freddie wanted to speak, but fortunately, he didn't. She chose her words carefully, trying not to reveal too much, but at the same time, trying to explain it all to him, or at least a tiny bit of it. "What just happened here is exactly what's making me leave. I'm afraid for everyone's safety, and… I'm just trying to protect you all, even if that means that I have to get out of your lives completely." She held out her hands and rested them on each one of his arms, softly rubbing his skin with her thumbs, just like she had done before.

Freddie frowned at her words, but much to her relief, he remained silent, patiently waiting for her to finish her speech.

"I had planned to leave quietly and without saying goodbye because I didn't actually think I'd be able to leave after saying goodbye, and I'm pretty sure you all would never understand my reasons and let me leave, mostly because I can't explain it all to you. But after what I heard tonight…" She shook her head one more time as she felt her eyes tearing up once again, and just like she had done before, she held the tears back. "After hearing everything you said out here, I just knew that I couldn't leave without telling you how… how I really feel about you."

Freddie's eyes were focused on hers with so much intensity that she felt as if he was trying to read her; to get inside her mind and understand the true meaning behind those words, but she knew he'd never be able to do that.

"I'm so sorry for this, Freddie." Her voice came out barely as loud as a whisper as she looked deep into his eyes, and Freddie's face was suddenly emotionless. He stared back at her blankly, like he was somehow hypnotized, which was kind of true, anyway.

Sam tried to remember everything Ryan had told her about mind compulsion, afraid of doing anything wrong and messing up Freddie's mind.

As she looked into his big brown eyes—the same ones that had always made her melt on the inside and the ones she had found herself deeply lost in several times—she felt the urge to stop it there and to not erase his memories; to give it all a chance. But she knew she couldn't do that. She kept what had happened about five minutes ago in the forefront of her mind in an effort not to back off as she held up her right wrist and bit it with her fangs, making two small marks on her skin. Then, she pressed her wrist gently against Freddie's mouth.

_"Drink,"_ she told him, and he obeyed without hesitating, sucking lightly over the marks and swallowing her blood eagerly.

"Okay, that's enough," she said after a few seconds, pulling her wrist back, and then she watched as the two small marks on his neck started healing. After a few seconds, they had vanished completely, leaving no sign they had ever been there, except for the blood that still covered the spot where she had bitten him. She looked down briefly at her wrist and saw that the same thing had happened to the two marks that had been there barely five seconds ago.

Freddie frowned as he held up his hand and touched his neck right where the marks had once been, and he looked surprised when all he felt was the soft skin of his neck. He shot her a confused look, but before he could say anything, Sam looked deep into his eyes once again, causing Freddie to regain the emotionless look he had on his face just a few seconds ago.

Sam took a deep breath, hesitating for a moment, before finally starting to speak again.

_"You're not gonna remember any of this. Gibby left a few minutes ago, and you've been alone out here since then. You're not gonna remember me being here, anything I said or did."_ She paused, not breaking eye contact with him as she searched for something in her pocket, and after a few seconds, she finally pulled a small object out of it. It was a silver chain bracelet, with a tiny round shaped pendant hanging from it.

She held it up, being extremely careful not to touch the pendant, only the chain, still not tearing her eyes away from Freddie's.

_"You're gonna wear this absolutely every second of every day,"_ she said, still compelling him, and then grabbed his right hand slowly and laid the bracelet on his palm. _"Don't ever take it off."_

Sam simply stood there for a moment, eyeing Freddie as she realized this would be the last time she would ever see him. That thought made her chest tighten with sadness, though she knew this was necessary. And when she spoke again, her voice coming out shaky and filled with pain, she finally gave up on fighting the tears that had been threatening to fall for so long. She blinked as her vision suddenly became blurry, and as the first few tears trailed their way down her cheeks, she whispered, "Goodbye, Freddie."

And then, she was gone.

**Freddie Benson**

Freddie blinked several times as he looked around, confused.

It took him a few seconds until he finally realized that he was out in the fire escape. He tried to remember what had happened since the time he had gotten there, but he couldn't remember it clearly. He… he had come out in the fire escape and… and then Gibby came out there to talk to him, and then he left after Freddie yelled at him, but… wasn't there anything else? He shook his head, trying to clear up his thoughts, but it didn't work out quite well.

Freddie looked down at his hand when he realized he was holding something he didn't remember to be holding, and he saw that there, resting on his palm, was a silver chain bracelet. He frowned, examining it carefully as he tried to remember where it had come from, but he was sure he had never seen it before. As he stared at the mysterious object, he realized that he somehow knew he needed to put it on and never take it off, even though he had no idea why. Shrugging, he put it on.

A chill went down his spine and he shivered when the cold wind hit him, and he decided to go back inside, just then realizing how cold it really was outside. As he walked over to his bed, he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror that hung on the open closet door, and what he saw made him freeze. He walked up to the mirror, not sure if the lack of light in the room was playing a trick on his eyes, and examined his reflection carefully.

There was something dark on the right side of his neck, but he couldn't tell what it was exactly. He walked to the bathroom and turned on the lights, finally getting a better view of his neck when he looked at himself in the mirror, and that was when he finally realized what the dark thing was.

Blood.

Freddie held up his hand hesitantly, and when his fingers came in contact with the crimson liquid, he felt it was still warm. He panicked for a moment, not sure what he should do as he tried to remember where the blood had come from, but he soon snapped out of his panicked thoughts and started cleaning the blood off his skin.

When he was done with that, he was surprised not to see any kind of cut or wound where the blood had previously been. He tried to understand where the blood had come from, but he just couldn't make himself figure it out. It was obviously not his, since he didn't remember getting hurt, and there was no sign of any kind of cut on him as far as he could tell. But then, whose blood was it?

He thought about it for a moment, but he soon realized that it was useless to insist on that subject, so he decided to just shrug it off for now and went back into his room, turning off the lights as he left the bathroom. But he didn't even bother to turn on the light inside his room; he simply walked toward his bed in the dark.

Freddie let himself fall onto his bed and, with his eyes closed, he began to think about everything that had happened that day. It was then that it all hit him once again, and it hurt so much he felt as if someone had just stabbed him right through his heart.

Sam was dead.

He let the tears fall again, thinking of all the memories they had had together, his heart breaking with every single second that passed, for he knew that he'd never see her again, and because he had never told her how he truly felt about her.

And now, he would never get the chance to do it.

**Sam Puckett**

Sam walked away from Bushwell Plaza without looking back. She needed to get away from there quickly, or else she knew she might do something she'd regret later.

Tears were still rolling down her cheeks as the distance between her and the place she had spent most of her life at grew bigger, the images from what had happened in the fire escape with Freddie replaying inside her mind over and over again, as if to remind her that she really needed to leave; that she would be putting the lives of everyone she cared about if she stayed.

She couldn't believe she had let the hunger take over her like that again, just like it had happened with her father. She had never felt so weak before. That was exactly why she had to leave—she was afraid that it would happen again, but perhaps the next time it happened it would turn out even more badly than the two previous times she had lost control had.

But deep down, Sam knew there was yet another reason why she knew she needed to leave—she was afraid she might lose everyone she cared about.

Her mother clearly hated her. Sam knew that she had probably already lost her, and that she probably wouldn't be able to get her back. Apparently, her father didn't hate her, but he was still a vampire hunter, and she was afraid of how things might turn out with him if she stayed. Would he try to stake his own daughter? She couldn't be sure, but she just wasn't willing to take that risk.

And if she had chosen to stay, to simply pretend that nothing was wrong and to go on with her life just how it was once supposed to go, how would she be able to hide the fact that she wasn't even human anymore from her friends? She knew she wouldn't be able to hide it forever. What would she tell them when they realized that she wasn't aging anymore? And what if she somehow got hurt in front of them and the wound healed in only a few seconds? And what if someone else got hurt? If there was blood involved, she wouldn't be able to hide her eyes, veins and fangs, and maybe she wouldn't be able to control herself.

And if they ever found out about her being a vampire, how would everyone react? They wouldn't take it well at all, Sam was sure of it.

Carly had always been afraid of the supernatural. Not simply in movies, but she truly believed that vampires, werewolves, witches, ghosts and such all existed, and she feared all of them greatly. Both Sam and Freddie had always told her that none of those creatures were real, but only now Sam could see how wrong they had been. Maybe Carly had gotten all those ideas from Spencer, since he'd always tell her bedtime stories when she was younger—all of them involving those kind of creatures—thinking that they'd help her sleep, but turns out they only made her terrified, and they really got under her skin, since now she was pretty afraid of those.

Sam couldn't know if Freddie would take it as badly as Carly would, but she knew that she had lost all the chances she had once had to be with him. How could he love her, knowing that she was a vampire? How could _anyone_ love someone like that?

But Freddie and Carly weren't the only ones who'd take it badly; everyone else would. Who, in their right mind, would ever live around a vampire like everything was normal? They would for sure be afraid that she might snap at any second, and honestly, they wouldn't be wrong to think that.

It didn't take long until she finally reached her destination. She was walking down a completely deserted street, at which the only thing that could be seen was a black car parked a few meters ahead from where she was, and as soon as she caught sight of it, she began to walk toward it in a quick pace, her breath visible because of Seattle's cool night air.

She quickly wiped the tears off her face with the sleeve of her jacket, before opening the unlocked car door and getting inside the vehicle, sitting down on the front passenger's seat and closing the door shut.

"So…" the man sitting on the driver's seat began, his voice filled with clear hesitation, "How did it go?"

"Not really how I had expected," she answered, not meeting her brother's gaze.

"Is that bad or good?" Ryan asked, but Sam remained silent, and he nodded lightly, taking her silence as an answer. "And the bracelet?" he asked.

Ryan had told her that the vervain in that bracelet would make sure that any human who wore it would be protected against being compelled by a vampire while wearing it, as well as that he had had that locked up for a long time, but that she could give it to someone if she wanted to. And she did.

"It'll be well worn," she replied, the pain in her voice evident even to her ears.

Ryan leaned a bit to the right and wrapped one arm around her shoulders, pulling her into a small hug. "Everything will be okay," he whispered into her hair. "I know it's really hard to see it right now, but you're making the right choice."

Sam didn't answer, she simply nodded in response, accepting his words.

Ryan then pulled away from his sister and started the engine, before driving away slowly, heading to the Seattle airport, where they'd both get on a plane back to Jacksonville, not planning on coming back to Seattle anytime soon.

But what Sam didn't know was that she'd meet up again with her past sooner than she expected.

_Three days later…_

**Freddie Benson**

The heavy silence that surrounded Freddie made the atmosphere around him even more depressing as he stared at the bronze letters on the grave right in front of him.

He had been standing there for over an hour, while most people had left as soon as the funeral was over, but Freddie's feet seemed to be glued to the ground right under them, making him unable to move from that very spot.

His eyes were full of tears, which he let fall freely. He had barely talked for the past three days, and he had also barely eaten anything. It seemed like he was getting worse at each day that passed, and people had started to seriously worry about him.

But no one dared to say anything, and Freddie was glad they didn't. He just wanted to be alone, even though he knew that couldn't heal him from all the pain he was feeling. Nothing could. Maybe he'd be able to forget about it for some time, but all the hurt would still be there, it would never be gone; it would only be bottled up inside of him, waiting for the moment to go back to the surface, and in that moment, Freddie would snap.

And he could do nothing to avoid it.

He was somewhat glad that the twins' parents had decided to keep both coffins closed. He wanted his last memory of Sam to be her happy face, laughing in Carly's living room the night they had all come back from college, and not the one of her pale and cold figure lying lifeless in a casket, her eyes closed—those beautiful eyes that had always gotten him hypnotized by their beautiful shade of blue.

The eyes he'd never see again.

He was so lost in his own suffering that he didn't even notice someone walking up to where he was before the person laid one hand lightly on his right shoulder. He quickly turned around, startled, only to find Spencer staring at him with nothing but pure sadness in his eyes.

"Hey, kiddo," the older man said, the sound of his low, hoarse voice strange to Freddie's ears as it broke the tense silence that had surrounded him for over an hour now. "Uh..." He seemed hesitant to speak, shifting his weight uncomfortably from one leg to the other. "Do you want me to drive you home?" he finally asked. "Carly and I are leaving now."

"Uh..." It took Freddie a moment to actually process Spencer's words. "Yeah, sure," he answered after a brief moment of hesitation as he remembered that his mother had already left, his voice sounding hoarse from crying and not speaking for so long. His mother had said she wanted to go home as soon as the funeral was over, but Freddie didn't want to leave just yet, so he told her that he'd go home with someone else, since he didn't have his own car there because he had gotten there with her. "Thanks, Spence."

"Okay," Spencer replied, looking down for a moment, before adding, "We'll be... we'll be waiting in the car." He met Freddie's gaze for only a second as he looked back up again, before turning around and walking away silently, leaving Freddie standing there alone once again.

Freddie watched him go for just a moment before his eyes found the grave once again, reading the words of the bronze engraving one last time, but just like all the previous times he had done it, it seemed like the meaning of those words just couldn't really sink in.

_**SAMANTHA PUCKETT**_

_**04/17/1994 - 12/17/2012**_

He sighed loudly, his breath shaking. He still couldn't believe that was actually happening. He felt as though this was the worst nightmare he could ever have, still allowing himself to hope that he'd wake up from it at any second, and then he'd see that everything was fine, and that Sam was still alive. But deep down, he knew it was all true.

Freddie bent down a bit and laid the red rose he had been holding on top of Sam's grave. Another tear rolled down his cheek as he sent one last glance toward the grave, before heading to the cemetery parking lot, where Carly and Spencer were waiting for him, but he felt like one part of him had died along with Sam, and it would remain in that cemetery forever.

* * *

**Author's Note: I got pretty emotional after writing that last part...**

**Anyway, so there you have it, the last chapter of the prologue! =) (I call them prologue because these first four chapters were supposed to be only one, but when I was done writing it, I realized that it turned out **_**way**_** too long, so I had to split it up into three chapters, and later, into four XD).**

**Things will start to get pretty interesting in the next chapter... ;D**

**Thank you so much for reading! =)**

**And don't forget to review! ;)**

**xxiCarlyFanxx**


	5. Chapter 5: One Year Later

**Author's Note: I'm sorry for the long wait, but school has been keeping me pretty busy lately =/**

**Disclaimer: I don't own iCarly or The Vampire Diaries.**

**Enjoy! ;)**

* * *

Darkness Times

Chapter 5: One Year Later

**Sam Puckett**

Sam stared out of the window of the Buzz Magazine Business Center building in Jacksonville from the seventh floor, deep lost in thought. In four days, it would be exactly one year since she had been turned into a vampire, but for her, it seemed like it had been much longer than that. Several times during the past year, she had found herself almost going back to Seattle to check on everyone she had left behind.

Almost.

She didn't go because she was afraid that if she went there, she might do something stupid that would lead to them finding out the truth, so it was better to keep things the way they were, because even if it didn't seem like it, it was better that way.

At least that was what Sam thought.

She had checked the iCarly website a few weeks after she left and found out that Carly and Freddie had decided not to tell their viewers about her 'death', and she was extremely glad they had done that, not only because she didn't want over a million people around the world crying over her death, but also because if she was ever spotted by an iCarly fan who thought she was dead, that could lead to terrible consequences.

She wondered how everyone was doing back in Seattle; if they were okay and if they still even talked about her. She hoped they had somehow forgotten about her, since she knew that if they hadn't, that would probably mean that they were still hurting because of her, and she didn't want that to happen. She wanted them to live their lives away from anything related to the supernatural, and that meant that they had to forget about her and leave her in the past, even if it hurt her to know that she might never see them again.

"Sam, are you even listening to what I'm saying?" an annoyed voice brought Sam back to reality abruptly, and she looked up at Jessica, her friend and co-worker, who was staring at her with her arms crossed over her chest and an annoyed look on her face.

Yes, you heard right. Jessica was Sam's co-worker, which meant that Sam had a job. It wasn't like she had actually wanted to work at first, but her brother Ryan was the kind of vampire who didn't like compelling people to get everything he wanted, and that, in Sam's opinion, could be extremely annoying sometimes. He kept insisting that it wasn't right to compel people, which was why he rarely did that, only in situations of extreme need, like when he made one of his monthly visits to one of the city hospitals to renew their blood supply. He kept annoying her for so long that Sam finally gave in and got a job at the Buzz Magazine.

But she didn't do it just because her brother had been bothering her about it. Both Ryan and Katelyn worked, and it wasn't hard to convince Melanie to get a job as well, so that left Sam with no one to spend time with during the whole day. And being alone in that apartment could get boring really quickly, so she ended up choosing to get a job, since she would actually have something to do during the day, instead of doing nothing at all around the apartment or the city all by herself.

But that didn't mean mind compulsion wasn't pretty useful sometimes. That was, if Ryan didn't know about it, of course.

She had started off as an assistant, but she was soon promoted because she was pretty creative and gave her boss pretty good ideas for the magazine design, and the guy liked her a lot. So, she was one of the people responsible for the cover design, along with Jessica and Christopher, who was their supervisor, and some other sections of the magazine.

"Of course, Jess," Sam said, but she knew Jessica wouldn't fall for that so easily.

"No, you weren't!" Jessica exclaimed angrily, throwing her arms up in the air in frustration. "You were just staring out of that window blankly and not paying attention to any word I was saying because you were too busy in daydreaming-instead-of-helping-me-and-doing-your-job land!"

Sam sighed. She knew where this conversation was headed, so she decided to just flip straight to the last page. "Jess," she began, and Jessica looked at her expectantly, probably waiting for an apology, but in the next moment, the brunette girl's face changed. She was suddenly in some kind of trance as she stared into Sam's eyes, and in that moment, Sam knew that Jessica would do anything she said. _"Just forget what just happened and resume what you were talking about,"_ she said calmly.

And after a few more seconds of staring blankly at Sam, the brunette girl blinked repeatedly and finally seemed to come back down to earth. "Oh, well, back to what I was saying," Jessica started talking again like absolutely nothing had happened. "I really think that the next edition, which will be the last one of 2013, has to be amazing! We have to add all those headlines Christopher handed us for the cover, and we also have to finish the article about Ginger Fox trying to kill that guy with a sponge in the end of that goodbye party after they finished shooting that film." She said all that in just one breath, and this time, Sam actually paid attention to what she was saying.

"Okay, that can't be too difficult," Sam said. "We just have to…"

They discussed those two topics for some time. The truth was that Sam actually worked now, and surprisingly, she didn't hate it.

"Are you sure Howard will like this?" Jessica asked hesitantly as she stared at the drafts the two of them had drawn and written on three pieces of paper placed on the table right between them. Howard was their boss, and even though his name reminded Sam of the horrible teacher she had had back at Ridgeway, the two were completely different from each other.

"Of course he will," Sam replied calmly, slightly amused by Jessica's fear of Howard. She was always extremely hesitant to even go speak to him, and that was why she usually asked either Sam or Christopher to go talk to him instead of going herself. "I mean, why wouldn't he?"

"I don't know… But we need to show this to Christopher first…" Sam could see that Jessica was about to stand up from the chair she had been sitting on, which meant that she probably wanted to go talk to Christopher, but Sam quickly stopped her.

"Hey, Jess, uh..." Sam stood up before the human could do so. "Why don't I go talk to Chris and show him this?" Sam offered, grabbing the paper sheets from Jessica's hands.

"Uh, are you sure?" Jessica asked, sounding slightly surprised. "I mean—"

"I'm sure, Jess," Sam quickly cut her off, "Really." Sam then rounded her table and left their office before Jessica could start arguing and without even glancing back. She just felt like she needed to leave that office for at least a few minutes.

As Sam walked down the hallway, she spotted her sister walking toward her, looking down at the papers she was holding in her hands.

Accepting the whole vampire thing had been way more difficult to Melanie than it had been to Sam, mainly because Melanie had always been a goody two-shoes, so she basically had a hysterical breakdown when Sam found her, especially after Ryan showed up that day in her dead friend's apartment. Melanie just wouldn't stop crying, and they spent a long time trying to make her calm down.

When they finally succeeded on making her stop crying and after they finally explained everything to her, she told them what had happened in the University dormitory and how the Amanda girl had ended up dead, but Katelyn had to speak up a few times because there were some parts of the story Melanie couldn't tell herself.

Turns out the girl, Amanda, had gotten back to their dorm with Melanie after going out with some friends and had decided to go take a shower. Meanwhile, Melanie saw that her mother had called her several times on her cell phone and called her to see why.

And that was when Tyler showed up.

He had already been invited inside the room about a week earlier, by Amanda. He had probably compelled her to pretend that he was her cousin and invite him inside the two girls' room. That was how he was able to walk into the room without Melanie noticing it or needing to be invited in, which allowed him to forcefully feed her his blood and kill her.

The time between Melanie's death and Katelyn's arrival at the room was a complete mystery, but Katelyn said that when she got there, Amanda was lying on the floor apparently dead, but when she came near the girl and heard her breathing deeply and her heart beating slowly inside her chest, she found out that the girl was simply unconscious. She decided to leave her that way and called Ryan after checking on Melanie and finding out that she was already dead.

When Melanie woke up, things got a bit out of control, since Katelyn kept insisting that she was a vampire, but Melanie didn't believe her and insisted that Katelyn was insane. After a few minutes, their arguing was interrupted by Amanda, who suddenly woke up, but she wasn't acting like her normal self. She seemed to be in some kind of trance and started to walk around the room with a blank expression on her face for several minutes. Melanie tried to make her come back to reality, but Amanda completely ignored her. After a few minutes, Amanda sat down on the edge of her bed and opened a drawer on the small nightstand placed right next to it, and then started searching for something in there.

And after a few seconds, she got a pair of scissors out of the drawer and quickly made a deep cut on her wrist, which instantly started bleeding nonstop.

It's not hard to imagine what happened next. Melanie completely lost control and bit Amanda, and when Katelyn tried to get Melanie off the girl, she was unexpectedly pushed back with enough strength to send her flying across the room and hit a wooden chair, which broke down into pieces, and one of the sharp pieces of wood went right through her stomach.

After realizing what she had done, Melanie ran out of the room and of the University in a blur.

Amanda had obviously been compelled by Tyler to provoke Melanie like that, causing Melanie's transition to be completed and Amanda to die.

They then decided to drop the subject of how Melanie had died—or of all the happenings of that horrible night, for that matter—but Sam was sure that Melanie would ask her about her own death as soon as she got the chance, which eventually happened.

Later that day, Ryan gave Melanie her daylight ring, which had previously been Trianna's, but Ryan somehow managed to get it the night Jorge killed her.

The thing with daylight rings was that the vampire who had one of those rings would be able to go out in the sunlight without any problems, but the ring wouldn't work on any other vampire. If the vampire who owned the ring died, the next vampire that put it on would own it.

Melanie was a bit hesitant the next few times she had to step out in the sunlight, but she soon lost her fear when she realized that the ring actually worked.

"Hey, Sam," Melanie greeted her sister brightly as she walked past her.

"Hey, Mel," Sam greeted her back and kept walking. Sam continued making her way through the narrow corridor until she reached the door of Christopher's office, and then walked inside without even bothering to knock. That was a habit she had from when she was still human, back in Seattle, and she honestly did not plan on losing it.

A man who was sitting on a table near the farthest wall of the room looked up from the papers he had been examining to see who was there, and he couldn't help but smile when he saw who it was, clearly amused. "Knocking seriously means nothing to you," he said, chuckling.

Sam smiled at him. "It really doesn't," she replied, also chuckling. "So, Jess and I got the drafts of the last edition of the year ready," Sam said, smiling as she held up the papers she had in hands.

"Great!" Christopher said, smiling brightly at her. "Let me see it." He held out his hand and she handed him the papers.

Sam waited impatiently as he examined the drafts slowly and carefully, but she soon found herself unable to remain quiet. "Well?" she asked after a few seconds. She had never been a very patient person.

Christopher looked up from the paper sheets with a serious expression, and the first thing Sam thought was that he hadn't liked it. She started telling herself not to stay too mad at him, or else he'd end up hurt for sure, but then, in the last moment, his face softened and he smiled once again.

"These are very good," he said, chuckling a bit because it was clear that Sam had thought he hadn't liked it. "They're way better than the first drafts you two gave me. I have to congratulate you girls."

"Thanks," Sam said, finally allowing her body to relax. "So, this is it? I mean, I know we still have to fix that problem with page sixteen, but isn't there anything else?"

Christopher shook his head lightly in response. "No, I think that's pretty much it for the cover and the article," he told her, placing the drafts she had given him on his desk. "But don't forget," he added, "I want page sixteen fixed by this Friday, okay?"

Sam simply nodded in response. "Alright, then," she replied, before exiting his office.

Sam then walked back to her and Jessica's office calmly, happy to know that this was her last week of work before Christmas break.

**Carly Shay**

One year.

It was extremely hard to believe it, but it had already been almost a whole year since Sam's death.

And even though that much time had passed, it still seemed like it had happened yesterday.

Carly still felt as if Sam would just show up at any moment and tell them all that everything was fine; that she was fine. Carly knew that she shouldn't feel that way, since it would only make things even worse, but there was absolutely nothing she could do to stop it. She missed Sam—the blonde had been her best friend for over ten years, how could it be any different?—and she knew that she'd never be able to forget about her. Even after a few more years had passed, the hurt would still be there, buried deep inside of her. It was like a scar that would be with her for the rest of her life.

But at least she was better at dealing with all that than Freddie was.

During the weeks that had followed Sam's death, they were all absolutely miserable, crying all the time, including Spencer. But it was different with Freddie. Even after some of the pain had quieted down for the rest of them, Freddie was still the same.

Carly had decided to let him take his time to accept it, but she started to get seriously worried about him as the weeks passed and he still wouldn't get any better. She had thought that after he had gone back to college, he'd get better; that he'd at least try to forget what had happened after some time and move on with his life. But she found out that she shouldn't have kept her hopes up when they met again on summer break.

Freddie hadn't gotten even a tiny bit better, and Carly could even dare to say that he had gotten worse. Gibby, who was going to the same college as Freddie and was even his roommate, told Carly that he was worried about Freddie as well.

Freddie was still the top student of all his classes, but he was acting more like a robot than like a student. He had been a lot quieter than before, and he had started to prefer to be alone practically all the time. He had stopped hanging out with all his friends, and if Gibby wasn't his roommate, he knew he probably wouldn't see him anymore as well. He was distancing himself from everyone, and soon, the only friend he still had in Yale was Gibby. Even the professors noticed that there was something wrong with him, but there was nothing anyone could do to help him.

Carly, Gibby and Spencer had all decided that it was better to just let him be and to give him some space, since they thought healing from a loss like that was something he had to do on his own, but they soon changed their minds about that.

They were all in summer break, and even though it was incredibly hot, Freddie insisted on wearing long sleeved shirts. That was when Carly started to think there was something going on that he didn't want them to know about, and she hoped with everything she had in her that her assumptions were wrong. But she soon found out otherwise.

She asked for Gibby's help, and a few days later, when Freddie showed up wearing a long sleeved shirt, just like Carly had expected him to, she questioned him about it. He said that he just thought the weather wasn't as hot as people were claiming it to be, but Carly could see the glimpse of a few tiny drops of sweat on his temple, and that was when she knew he was lying.

She asked him if she could see something on his arm, but he suddenly got extremely defensive and asked why she would want to do that. She then nodded lightly at Gibby, who suddenly held Freddie from behind, which allowed Carly to grab his right arm and pull up the sleeve of his shirt, since she knew Freddie was left handed.

And when she laid her eyes on his forearm, she saw exactly what she had been hoping she wouldn't.

There were several thin marks on his skin, the majority of them already white, meaning that they had been done at least several weeks ago, but there were some that were clearly recent.

Carly couldn't take it anymore. She couldn't just watch Freddie destroy his own life like that and simply not do anything about it, so she decided it was finally time to intervene. It took a while, but Freddie finally agreed with her that it was best for him to try to move on. At first, Carly thought her speech hadn't worked the way she had expected it to, since Freddie didn't seem to have changed at all during the days that followed, but after a while, he seemed to be getting better slowly, and now it even seemed like he had sort of gotten over Sam's death.

Sort of.

Carly knew there was no way he'd ever completely get over it, for she knew that even she would never be able to do so. She could see it in Freddie's eyes that he was still hurt, as well as that he was still suffering on the inside, but he simply didn't let it show as much as he did before. But a sign that he was at least a tiny bit better was that he had stopped cutting, and that was already enough for Carly to still have hope that one day, things might go back to normal, even though she knew their lives would never be the same again.

Ever.

**Freddie Benson**

The fog was pretty dense and thick, which made it pretty impossible for Freddie to see anything more than two steps ahead of him, but that didn't make him stop walking. He tried to use the trees around him to guide himself through the apparent forest he currently found himself lost in, but that didn't help much, and it didn't prevent him from tripping over some inconvenient rock or big tree root every now and then.

He couldn't remember what had brought him to that place, or even what he was doing there to begin with. There was only one thing he was absolutely sure of—he needed to get out of there, and he needed to do it fast, but he had no idea how to do it.

Time dragged by slowly, and it seemed like Freddie wasn't doing any progress. He felt as if he was just walking around in circles, and that he'd never be able to find a way out of that place.

Until…

He spotted some kind of dim light ahead. It came into view slowly, and it looked like a mere bright point in the darkness from the distance, but it began to grow bigger and brighter as he approached it. He started to grow some confidence and hope inside of him because of that sight, thinking that he had finally, after what seemed to have been several hours wandering blindly through the darkness, found the exit of that place.

His pace started growing faster at each step he took, his eyes completely glued to the source of the mysterious white light. He wasn't paying much attention to where he stepped anymore; the possibility of finally being able to leave that forest overwhelmed him with so much intensity that being careful about every single step he took just didn't seem so important anymore.

It didn't take long until he was nearly running, his hot and heavy breath visible as it met the cold night air. The distance between him and the light was getting smaller at each second that went by...

It was then that he tripped over something big, causing him to nearly fall flat on his face on the muddy ground, though he managed to regan his balance as he hurried to support his body on the trunk of a nearby tree.

He quickly looked down at the ground, looking for whatever had made him trip, and he was shocked when he realized what it was.

A person.

He kneeled down next to the body and noticed that it was a brunette girl, and she seemed to be pretty young. In fact, she was probably the same age as he was, but Freddie couldn't see her face clearly, for her dark brown hair was covering it completely like some kind of curtain.

He grabbed the girl's right shoulder and made her roll over, trying to see her face, and what he saw made him gasp loudly.

Carly.

The brunette girl's neck was completely covered in fresh blood, and Freddie could see something that looked like a bite mark on her throat, but it was weirdly made of only two small holes on her skin. He desperately tried to find a pulse by pressing his left index and middle fingers against the right side of her neck, but he felt nothing.

Carly was dead.

Freddie stood up abruptly when he heard the sound of something moving behind some bushes and a wooden stick breaking somewhere to his left. His eyes began to fill up with tears at the sight of his best friend lying lifeless on the ground right in front of him, but he held them back. He needed to get out of that place, and he needed to do it _now_.

Without another thought, Freddie took off running, but he felt as if he was being followed, even though the only sounds that could be heard were caused by him—his hurried footsteps, his heavy breathing and his own heartbeat, which seemed to be loud enough for someone else to hear it.

After a few seconds, he finally reached the source of the light he had spotted earlier, but he was disappointed with what he found there.

He had been expecting to find an exit to that forest, but instead, he found himself stepping into what he guessed to be clearing.

As soon as he was out of the woods, he was able to see the black starless and cloudless night sky clearly above him, as well as the full moon shining brightly against the darkness that surrounded it, sending a dim light over everything around him. The fog was still pretty dense, which made it impossible for Freddie to have a good look at the place he now found himself in, so he couldn't be sure if it was really a clearing.

As if his thoughts had been heard, the fog suddenly seemed to go down a bit, allowing Freddie to have a clearer view of the place, which was—now he could be sure—a clearing, and just now he could see how big it actually was. But what caught Freddie's attention wasn't the size of the clearing, but what there was right in the center of it.

The only thing Freddie could make out under the dim moonlight was the dark silhouette of a person standing in the distance, and nothing more.

He hesitantly started walking forward, ignoring the little voice in the back of his head that kept telling him to turn around and run away from that clearing as fast as he could.

As the distance between him and the person grew smaller, he was able to notice that the figure had their back turned at him and was wearing some kind of red cape that went all the way down to the ground, but the end of the fabric seemed to be floating a bit in the air, while a hood covered the back of the person's head.

"Hello?" Freddie's voice broke the absolute silence in which the clearing had been drowned when he was merely a few steps away from the figure, but he got no response from whoever it was.

He rounded the figure hesitantly in an effort to try to get their attention and at least try to get a clear view of their face, but when he was standing right in front of them, he noticed that the hood was covering most of the person's face, only allowing Freddie to see the person's mouth, pale white chin and blonde curls that came out of the hood and covered their neck and chest, which led Freddie to believe it was a girl.

Freddie just stood there, not knowing what to do. He simply stared at the girl, his warm breath now more visible than ever in the air as he waited silently for her to make a move; to say something, or to at least do something. _Anything_.

And after a long awkward moment, she finally did.

The mysterious girl started moving her hands up slowly, until she reached the hood that was covering her head. She held each side of it with one of her hands and pulled it down to her shoulders calmly, finally revealing her face to Freddie. And when he recognized her, his heart nearly skipped a beat.

"S-Sam?" he managed to stutter at her gaze, her piercing blue eyes staring at him with so much intensity that he suddenly felt frozen.

And then, it all changed.

The white part of Sam's eyes suddenly became red, and in the area right under her eyes, the veins became black and seemed to somehow be pressed against her skin from the inside.

Freddie's breath got caught in his throat, his eyes wide with shock. He was suddenly sure that he needed to get out of there as fast as possible, but he just couldn't make himself move.

Sam smiled at his fear, allowing Freddie to see the fangs that had suddenly grown where her normal canine teeth should be, which made him even more shocked and nervous than he already was.

And that was when he finally regained his ability to move and took off running.

But he didn't go far, since Sam was suddenly standing right in front of him, and he stopped abruptly in an effort not to crash right into her.

"Why are you running, Fredward?" Sam asked as she took a few steps closer to him, pausing when she was standing right in front of him, and then rested her right index finger on his chest. "Are you afraid of me?"

She moved her finger up all the way to his neck, the tip of her long fingernail brushing against his skin lightly and sending a shiver down his spine. She only stopped when she had reached his chin, and when she did that, she used her finger to push his head up slightly, making him look at her in the eye, which was something he had been avoiding to do until then.

"What are you afraid of?" Her tone was unusually malicious, a fact that made Freddie even more nervous at each second that went by. "That I might kill you, just like I did with Carly?"

It seemed like she thought that whole situation was somehow completely amusing, and Freddie could only gape at her, disbelief clear on his features.

"Well, if you're afraid of that…" she went on, a malicious smile playing on the corner of her lips.

She leaned in slowly, and Freddie clearly tensed up, but he couldn't move. He felt Sam's hot breath against the skin of his neck as she whispered something into his right ear.

"… You're absolutely right."

Freddie had no time to react as Sam pressed her piercing fangs against the skin of his neck, and pain erupted from every single nerve of his body. He tried to push her off him as she slowly sucked the life out of him, but he couldn't. She was too strong.

He soon realized that it was useless to fight, and that he'd die anyway, just like Carly did, so he simply gave in and let the darkness take over him slowly…

Freddie sat up abruptly.

He looked around nervously, breathing heavily. It took him a few seconds to realize that it had all just been a nightmare, and that he was actually safe in his room in Yale, the University he had been studying at.

He let himself fall back onto the bed after looking over at the digital clock on the nightstand, where he read that it was already four in the morning.

Sighing soundlessly, he tried to make himself go back to sleep, but that dream just wouldn't leave his mind.

It wasn't the first time he had had that exact same dream. The first time he had it had been during summer break, about six months ago, but he had tried to ignore it back then, simply shoving it to the back of his mind. After about two weeks, he had the same dream again, but he avoided thinking about it as well. During the months he had been in Yale, he had had that dream about three more times, and it was actually starting to intrigue him, but he didn't tell anyone about it.

But about two weeks ago, he started having that dream again, and it was happening almost every night, which was beginning to actually freak him out.

And the weirdest part of it all was that he felt as if the dream actually meant something.

But what could that possibly be?

He had absolutely no idea.

In the beginning, he had kept telling himself that the single thought of the dream actually meaning something was truly ridiculous, but now that it had started to repeat itself in his mind during his sleep almost every night, it really started to bother him, and he started to actually see an existing meaning behind it as a possibility.

Gibby suddenly rolled over on his own bed on the other side of the room and mumbled something about pirates and hot mustard, abruptly bringing Freddie back to reality. It was then that he remembered he'd have to wake up pretty early the next day if he didn't want to be late for his flight to Seattle and decided that he'd better go back to sleep.

Freddie rolled over as well, trying to get a bit more comfortable, and that was when a thought he had been trying to avoid suddenly crossed his mind.

In four days, it would be exactly one year since Sam's death.

Freddie still missed her, and he knew that would never change, even though he had somehow tried to go on with his life during the past few months. He knew that he should forget about her, but he just couldn't. He still loved her, and he still felt the exact same way he did when he first found out that she was dead. He still felt just as broken as he did the night his mother showed up at Carly's apartment with the worst news he'd ever hear in his whole life. He had really tried to get better; to heal from all that pain, but all the hurt was still there, and sometimes, he actually felt as if he was still standing right in front of Sam's grave, trying to make himself believe that she was really gone, but his brain just didn't seem capable of accepting that.

The heartache was still there, just as strong as before.

Freddie closed his eyes, trying to get rid of all those thoughts, and after a few minutes, he finally managed to slowly drift back off to sleep, the dream he had had just a few minutes ago still as clear as crystal in his mind.

* * *

**Author's Note: I wonder what the meaning behind that dream is, and why Freddie keeps having it over and over again... ;)**

**Okay, so I have two things to say...**

**1. I have no idea if that's the way daylight rings really work in TVD, but in "162 Candles" (1x08), when Lexi asked Stefan if he wanted to exchange rings, and he said, "It doesn't work that way," it kinda got me thinking, and that idea popped into my mind. So since no vampire was seen wearing another vampire's daylight ring, bracelet or necklace in the series, and this idea will fit perfectly in future chapters, I thought, why not?**

**2. I also have no idea how the production and design of a magazine works. This is the only chapter where Sam's job will be mentioned with so much detail, so if things don't actually work that way, just bear with me XD**

**I think that's it for now...**

**Don't forget to leave me a review telling me what you think of the story so far! =)**

**Thank you so much for reading =)**

**xxiCarlyFanxx**


	6. Chapter 6: An Awkward Invitation

**Author's Note: I know, I know, I suck at updating XD Sorry about that.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own iCarly or The Vampire Diaries.**

**Enjoy! ;)**

* * *

Darkness Times

Chapter 6: An Awkward Invitation

**Freddie Benson**

"But when did these nightmares start?" Gibby asked Freddie as the two of them packed their stuff into their bags, getting ready to leave Yale in just a few hours for winter break. He hadn't told Gibby what exactly happened in the nightmare; he had simply told him that he had been having some kind of creepy dream involving Sam that had been repeating itself almost every night in his sleep, and that it was beginning to freak him out.

"Well, the first time I had it was about six months ago, but it had never repeated itself so much like this," Freddie answered after thinking about it for a moment. "This repetitive thing started the night Carly called to tell us about the memorial."

In four days, it would be exactly one year since Sam's death, and Carly had been working on a memorial for both her and Melanie. She was inviting everyone who had studied with the iCarly trio in high school and had known Sam, as well as all the people from Jacksonville who had been friends with Melanie. Carly had managed to convince Ted Franklin, the principal of Ridgeway Junior High School, to let her hold the memorial in the school, but Freddie knew she actually didn't need to convince him at all. He had also received the news of Sam's death with tears in his eyes, and he didn't even hesitate before allowing the event to take place in the school gym, where all kinds of important school reunions and events usually happened.

"Well, maybe that's just your subconscious playing with you, you know? Since this whole memorial thing brought it up." Gibby didn't need to specify what he was referring to, since it was already pretty clear. He was always pretty hesitant while talking to Freddie about Sam because he knew very well that was a pretty delicate subject.

"I don't know, Gib... It's just..." Freddie let the sentence float in the air, unable to find a way to respond.

He didn't want to tell Gibby exactly what he had in mind because he was sure Gibby would think that he had gone insane, or at least something close to that. Freddie couldn't explain why, but it was like he could actually feel that the dream meant something; like it had some kind of hidden message behind it, even if he had no idea what it was. He just couldn't let himself admit that it was simply a nightmare like any other, since he had had it more than five times already, and it was_ exactly_ the same dream every single time. There had to be some kind of explanation for that.

But the problem was that he had no idea what it meant, and he was nowhere close to figuring it out, since he had no idea how to do it. He had replayed the dream several times in his head, but no matter how much he thought about it, he just couldn't make any progress in understanding it.

"Listen, man," Gibby started, but paused for a brief moment, shaking his head. "Don't try to read more into things than you actually should, because that will only make things even worse," he finally said, as if he could read Freddie's thoughts. "It will do you absolutely no good."

Instead of answering, Freddie simply sighed as he resumed packing, but those thoughts never left his mind during that whole afternoon.

**Jorge Puckett**

The phone rang.

Jorge looked up from the papers he had been checking, which were spread all over his desk, and reached his hand out to grab the phone to answer the incoming call. "What is it, Clarice?" he asked the station secretary, who he knew was listening on the other end.

_"There's a man on the phone who wants to talk to you,"_ Clarice explained, her voice dragging at each word._ "He said his name is Matthew, and that it's really important."_

"Okay, put him on the line," Jorge replied, suddenly growing anxious as soon as he realized who it was.

Matthew was the son of one of Jorge's friends who also worked as a vampire hunter, but he had moved to Jacksonville a few years ago, taking his family with him. Matthew was extremely talented on researching things and people, and that was exactly why he could be so helpful, and also why he had been helping Jorge track down Tyler for the past few months, even though Jorge hadn't received any results just yet.

He had tried not to let his hopes up too high, though. It was already pretty difficult to track down someone who didn't want to be found, so it was pretty much impossible to track down a vampire who wanted to remain hidden. But surprisingly, Matthew assured Jorge that he might be able to find Tyler. Jorge had no idea how he planned to do it, but he guessed Matthew trusted the fact that he was some kind of tech genius. When Jorge asked him how he'd do it, Matthew simply told him that he had his ways, clearly not wanting to get into details about it.

During the first few months after that terrible night Jorge had been trying not to put much thought into for the past whole year, he had tried to track Tyler down on his own, assuming that the vampire would be somewhere near Seattle or at least in the West Coast, but he soon found out otherwise, and his next bet was Jacksonville. So that was when he decided to contact Matthew and see if the twenty-year-old young man would be able to help him track down the vampire.

"Hello?" Jorge spoke into the phone when he heard the sound that meant the call had been transferred.

_"Officer Puckett?"_ Matthew's voice could be heard from the other end of the phone line.

"Yes, but as I've already told you a hundred times, you can call me Jorge," Jorge told him with a hint of a smile.

_"Sorry,"_ Matthew replied, chuckling lightly. _"It's just hard to lose the habit."_

Jorge smiled, looking down for a moment. "So," Jorge began, trying to restrain the clear anxiety in his voice, but failing miserably at doing so, "Was there any development?"

_"Actually, yes, there was,"_ Matthew replied. _"And that is exactly why I'm calling you."_

"Well, what did you find out?" Jorge asked, not even bothering to hide his excitement anymore.

_"I've finally been able to figure out Tyler's exact location,"_ the young man said. _"Well, kind of exact, anyway."_

"And where is he?" Jorge was already losing his patience, and he wasn't making any effort to hide it.

Matthew hesitated for a brief moment, before he finally said, _"Turns out he might be here in Jacksonville."_

"Jacksonville?" The name of the city echoed inside Jorge's head a few times. It was pretty ironic that Tyler might have chosen to stay in the same city where he had killed Melanie, but the older man didn't comment on it out loud.

_"Yeah, but I can't tell for sure yet,"_ Matthew explained. _"That's why I said it was kind of exact. But what I can be sure of is that even if he's not living here in Jacksonville, he's for sure somewhere here in Florida."_

"Well, that's already something, isn't it?" Jorge made a short pause to try to organize his thoughts, struggling to fully wrap his mind around what he had just heard. "Thank you so much for this, Matthew," he finally said. "Call me when you find out if he's really there."

_"Sure thing,"_ Matthew replied, before hanging up.

Jorge sat back in the chair as the meaning of the conversation he had just had really sunk in. After almost a year, he'd finally be able to make that bastard would pay for what he had done to him and his family.

The desire for revenge started growing within him as all the hurt Tyler had caused emerged from deep inside of him once again. He had completely destroyed Jorge's family, and in consequence, the human's whole life. He had possibly been the vampire who had killed Jorge's son, Ryan, and he had also turned both the man's daughters into the thing he had once hated more than anything else in the world.

His hands clenched into fists as the anger started to boil up inside of him, and he breathed in and out repeatedly in a failing effort to try to calm himself down.

Tyler would get what he deserved, even if making sure that happened was the last thing Jorge would do in his life.

And that meant he'd go to Florida; more especifically, to Jacksonville. Even if Matthew didn't know for sure if Tyler was really in Jacksonville, he was in Florida for sure, and that was where Jorge needed to be if he wanted to find the vampire and kill him. But before he got on a plane to Jacksonville, he knew he had to do something that might not turn out well at all.

He needed to talk to Pam about his sudden trip to Jacksonville and hear what she thought about it, even though he was sure he already knew what her opinion on that would be. He needed to tell her where he would be and the reasons behind his trip to the other side of the country, hoping that she'd understand it, and that she'd agree with him that it was the right thing to do. He hadn't told her that he had been tracking Tyler down, but now that he might actually find out where the vampire was, he knew he couldn't keep it a secret from her anymore, so the sooner he told her, the better.

Weirdly enough, the incident with Tyler one year ago had actually brought them a lot closer than they had ever been after their divorce, and he even thought they could actually be called friends again. But he somehow knew that his trip to Jacksonville could end up harming their newly rebuilt friendship.

Sighing, he stood up from the chair he had been sitting on and walked toward the door of his office after grabbing his car keys, before leaving the Seattle police station, telling the secretary that he'd be back later.

And about two minutes later, Jorge found himself driving his way to Pam's apartment, where she had been living for a while now, since she refused to keep living in her old house, considering that Tyler had been invited in there, and even though she hadn't said it out loud, Jorge knew that she had also considered the fact that Sam had also been invited in. But Jorge didn't let her sell the house for several reasons he knew Pam wouldn't quite understand. There were just too many memories in there he didn't want to lose, so he moved in the house and gave Pam the apartment he had been living in. She had been hesitant about it at first, but she soon ended up accepting his offer.

It didn't take long until he arrived at Pam's apartment building, the one he had lived at for over fifteen years, trying to calm himself down as he thought of the various possible scenarios he might witness in just a matter of minutes, many of which not pleasant at all.

**Freddie Benson**

The Shays' doorbell rang.

"It's open!" Spencer's voice could be heard from out in the hallway, coming from inside the apartment. The front door was suddenly pushed open and Freddie and Gibby walked inside, the second one of them still carrying his bags.

"Oh, hey, kiddos!" Spencer exclaimed happily, dropping the paint can and brush he had been holding, one in each hand, before running up to the two young men and pulling them both into a tight bear hug.

"I missed you two! How are you doing?" he asked the two, smiling, though the smile did not quite reach his eyes.

Since Sam's death, Spencer was never the same. Of course, he was still extremely random and still set things on fire by simply looking at them, but all the usual happiness you could clearly see in his eyes during pretty much every moment you spent with him was completely gone. And not only that, but you could also see in his sculptures that he hadn't gotten over her death yet, since pretty much every single one of them were painted with dark and sad colors, not the strong and happy colors he used to use; you could clearly see sadness in pretty much all of them.

"We're good," Gibby answered, dropping his bags on the floor by the front door.

"Yeah," Freddie agreed, though he didn't really mean it, "We're fine."

"Well, Carly is upstairs. She arrived about an hour ago. She should be down in just a few minu—" Spencer stopped abruptly when he heard the sound of someone skipping down the stairs hurriedly, and the three of them quickly looked in the direction of the staircase, only to spot Carly running toward them with a huge smile on her face.

"Freddie! Gibby!" Carly exclaimed happily as she made her way toward them, and as soon as she reached her two friends, she pulled both of them into a tight hug, just like her brother had done just a few seconds earlier.

They spent the next few hours simply talking about everything that had happened to them during the last six months, but even though all of them felt pretty comfortable at first, their conversation eventually started heading toward pretty delicate grounds.

"So, when will it be?" Gibby asked Carly, referring to the twins' memorial.

"In three weeks," Carly answered. "I wanted it to be this Tuesday, considering it's the seventeenth and all, you know? But Ted told me that the school is going through some changes and stuff, and neither the auditorium nor the gym will be ready until then."

"And have you invited everyone already?" Gibby was the one to ask once again. Freddie simply listened to their conversation in silence, since he didn't really feel like talking in that moment, considering the subject of the conversation.

"Almost," Carly said, and then paused for some reason. She suddenly seemed hesitant, though Freddie could not understand why exactly. "I still have to invite..." She paused yet again, taking in a deep breath, before finally blurting out, "Their parents."

"Why haven't you talked to them yet?" Gibby asked, frowning.

"Well, firstly, because I don't have their phone numbers," she told them, shrugging lightly. "And secondly, because I'd rather invite them in person, anyway."

"And when are you planning to do it?" Freddie finally spoke up, somehow managing to swallow the lump that had formed in his throat.

"Well, I was thinking about going there as soon as you two arrived... You know, so you could come with me..." Carly said, playing nervously with her fingers, as if she knew they would probably turn her invitation down.

"Sorry, Carls, but I can't," Gibby answered. "My mom told me it was really important that I went straight home as soon as I got to Seattle."

Both Freddie and Carly couldn't help but give him matching puzzled looks.

"But then shouldn't you have gone home, like, over two hours ago?" the girl asked, frowning slightly in confusion.

Gibby suddenly seemed confused. "Why?" he asked, sounding slightly amused, as if he thought Carly had just asked him something that didn't make sense at all.

"Didn't your mother ask you to go straight home? But you came here instead..." Freddie explained, letting his voice float in the air in the last part, hoping that the meaning of his words would finally sink in.

"Oh, man!" Gibby exclaimed suddenly, before standing up abruptly, grabbing his bag and running out of the apartment without even looking back.

"Anyway..." Carly said, chuckling at Gibby's randomness, before turning to Freddie once again. "So, will you go with me?" she asked. "Like... right now?"

"I don't know, Carly... I..." Freddie tried to come up with an excuse as fast as he could, but he had never been really good at making up things like that at the top of his head so fast.

"Please?" Carly pleaded, giving him her best puppy dog look.

Freddie still hesitated a bit, but he soon ended up giving in with a sigh. "Okay," he said, but he didn't sound very thrilled about it.

"Yay!" Carly exclaimed happily, before grabbing his arm and nearly dragging him toward the front door.

It wasn't over an hour later when the two found themselves riding up the elevator of Pam's apartment building, which was precisely the same building Jorge used to live at. Freddie still didn't understand why Jorge and Pam had decided to exchange their homes, but it was none of his business anyway, so he simply tried to shrug it off, even though the curiosity was still there.

The elevator ride up to the thirteenth floor was silent, and Freddie could easily tell that Carly was nervous. He couldn't blame he, though, for Sam's mother had never been exactly kind or friendly toward either one of them, so he understood why Carly felt so uneasy because of the thought of paying a surprise visit to the woman. They both felt as if they had been waiting in that elevator for over ten minutes—though it actually couldn't have been more than one—when the two metal doors finally separated from each other, allowing Freddie and Carly to step into the hallway of the thirteenth floor. They both looked around, trying to find the right apartment as they attempted to guide themselves by looking at the signs with numbers that hung next to the door of each apartment, which, much to their annoyance, didn't follow any kind of coherent sequence or pattern. However, their search didn't last long, since Carly's phone rang suddenly, the sound of her ringtone echoing loudly through the empty hallway.

"It's Spencer," the brunette girl announced after briefly looking down at the screen of her PearPhone. "I just hope he didn't set the apartment on fire again..." she muttered more to herself than to Freddie, before answering the call. "Hey, Spence, is everything okay?... Wait, what?" She frowned. "I saw it a few days ago on the kitchen island, but I have no idea where it is now... But why do you need it now?" Carly seemed to be pretty impatient as she heard what her older brother was saying on the other end. "I'll be right back!" Carly told Freddie suddenly, before walking away hurriedly, but before she was out of earshot, Freddie was able to hear the words 'fridge', 'mustard' and 'underwear'.

Yeah, he seriously did not want to know what was going on.

Moving his thoughts away from the conversation he had just kind of overheard, he resumed searching for the apartment 1324, and after about five minutes, he finally found it.

He stood before the front door as he waited for Carly, but he soon got tired of simply standing there and took a few steps forward, approaching the door even more and leaning against the wall right beside it. And when he did that, he heard voices coming from inside the apartment. And whatever was going on in there, he could tell it wasn't any kind of civilized conversation.

Freddie recognized Pam's voice at first, and after a few seconds, he recognized Jorge's. He wondered why they were arguing, and out of curiosity, he stepped even closer to the door, just so he could hear the words more clearly, and closed his eyes, trying to understand what was going on in the middle of all that yelling.

**Jorge Puckett**

Jorge paced around nervously.

He currently found himself in Pam's living room, and the blonde woman herself was standing right in front of him, but instead of the civilized conversation he had hoped they'd have, he was pretty sure all the neighbors on that floor, and on both the below and above ones as well, could hear their arguing, but Pam didn't seem to care even one tiny bit about that.

"Have you lost your freaking mind?" she yelled for what Jorge guessed was the tenth time in the last twenty minutes. She still seemed to not have understood Jorge's reasons to go to Jacksonville, or even why he wanted to find Tyler in the first place.

"Pam, please," Jorge began, the volume of his voice a lot lower than hers, "Just calm down and let me explain everything to you."

"Calm down? Calm down? How do you expect me to calm down after you show up on my doorstep telling me that you're going on a trip that makes absolutely no sense, going after a murderer that you probably won't even find and trusting a boy you have barely talked to in your whole life?!" Pam exclaimed angrily. "And to make things even worse, the city you're going to is on the other side of the country! Now please explain to me how the hell do you expect me to calm down?!"

Jorge had indeed already seen Pam angry several times before, but what he was witnessing in that moment was a whole new level of angry that he had never been unfortunate enough to see until now. "Okay, first of all, this trip does make sense," Jorge said, struggling to keep his voice calm and controlled. "I told you that I wouldn't let Tyler get away with what he did, and I'm making up for that promise. He will pay, and the only way to do that is going to Jacksonville, since that's where he probably is."

"Jorge, what part of 'the past stays in the past' don't you understand?" Pam asked.

Jorge sighed at her stubbornness. "You may be able to follow that, Pam, but I'm not. I'll never be able to live normally again until I do this." He paused for a brief moment, before adding, "He killed our son, and he killed our daughters. He destroyed our family, and our lives. Doesn't that pretty much explain it all?"

"Are you sure that's the only reason why you're doing this?" Pam asked.

Jorge frowned. "What are you talking about?" he asked, genuinely confused.

"Well, maybe there's something else..." She made a short pause. "You found them, didn't you?" Pam's voice was at the same time calm and threatening, something that Jorge had always seen her do extremely well.

Jorge was a bit surprised by her question, which made him hesitate before answering. He hadn't actually thought about that until then, but her question made him suddenly realize a very tiny, yet real, possibility.

Could Sam and Melanie also be in Jacksonville? Taking the fact that Jacksonville was where Melanie used to go to college in consideration, he had to admit there was a real chance that could be true, but he couldn't be sure of anything without any kind of solid proof.

"Actually, no, I didn't," Jorge answered, suddenly snapping out of his thoughts.

Pam sighed, and it was obivous she had not believed what her ex-husband had just said. "Jorge, you have to understand this, because I can clearly see you haven't yet," Pam started, and Jorge noticed that she was suddenly pretty tense, and even a bit hesitant. "Sam and Melanie are dead. You can't change that, and even if you ever find them, what's the point of bringing them back? They're not our daughters anymore."

"I honestly don't know how you can be so sure about that," Jorge said, shaking his head. "I know they're not exactly the same, but you can't act like they're not out there somewhere. And yes, they are still our daughters, even though you try to deny it. Didn't you read Sam's letter? By what I read, I could easily tell that she was still herself, and I'm pretty sure Melanie is still herself as well."

"So that's what's keeping your hopes up then? That stupid letter?" Pam said, anger suddenly becoming evident in her voice once again. "I should have never showed you that thing, but now I can't go back to change what I did. It's a mistake I'll probably regret for the rest of my life, since I know that you still have that thing somewhere, when you actually should have burned it all along."

"Are you even listening to the things you're saying?" Jorge asked in disbelief. "They're our _daughters_, Pam! What part of that don't you understand?"

"They're not my daughters. They stopped being my daughters the moment they opened their eyes that night and became what they are now." She made a brief pause as she took one step closer to Jorge and looked deep into his eyes, as if by doing that she'd somehow be able to get her words through his head. "They're monsters, Jorge," she added, her voice earning a calm and controlled tone for the first time in that conversation, "And nothing you say can change that."

Silence fell upon the two for a brief moment. Even though Jorge didn't want to admit it, Pam wasn't completely wrong about what she had just said. Sam and Melanie had indeed turned into what he had always considered to be monsters, but he wouldn't mean it the way Pam did. He just couldn't make himself think of them as monsters, even if he wanted to, and he knew he didn't.

Jorge was about to speak up again when the sound of the doorbell ringing suddenly interrupted their arguing.

**Freddie Benson**

_"They're not my daughters. They stopped being my daughters the moment they opened their eyes that night and became what they are now."_ Freddie heard Pam's voice through the closed wooden door, against which he had his right ear pressed in an effort to hear the ex-couple's words more clearly.

His heart was racing inside his chest because of everything he had just heard, as well as in expectation to hear more, but he suddenly heard the sound of a pair of footsteps coming from the end of the hallway. He pulled away from the door quickly, just in time for it to seem like he had simply been standing in the hallway that whole time when Carly rounded the corner and caught sight of him.

"Hey, sorry about that," the brunette girl said as she walked up to where Freddie was. "Spencer almost set the whole apartment on fire, but he bought a new fire extinguisher a few days ago, he just didn't know where he had put it, so that's why he called."

Freddie responded with an understanding nod of his head, choosing to remain silent. Just then he remembered why he and Carly had gone to that apartment building in the first place, and suddenly, what they were about to do didn't seem like such a good idea to him anymore. Freddie had a feeling that they probably shouldn't interrupt Pam and Jorge's arguing, but he had no idea how to tell Carly that they should probably come back another time, or maybe just call them to make the invitation instead of talking to them in person. But he knew that even if he tried to convince Carly that this wasn't a good idea, it wouldn't make a difference anyway; he knew just how stubborn she was and that she would still manage to drag him inside that apartment along with her even if he didn't want to go, so he didn't even bother to try to talk to her about it.

"Well, so... Let's do this?" Carly asked, eyeing him curiously, probably because he was suddenly acting a bit weird after what he had just heard. But of course, Carly didn't know that.

"Uh..." Freddie had to think for a moment before answering that, struggling to organize his thoughts. "Yeah, sure," he finally said, and just then he noticed that Carly seemed to be expecting him to do something. It took him a few seconds to realize that she wanted him to ring the doorbell for her, since he was the one standing right next to it. It seemed like his mind was somewhere else, far away from there. His head was a complete mess due to all the thoughts that kept creeping their way into his mind. The conversation he had just eavesdropped on kept replaying inside his head nonstop, even though he was trying to push those thoughts away at the moment. He'd think about it all when it was the right time, but his mind just seemed unable to understand that.

Freddie rang the doorbell hesitantly, and in that moment he realized that the apartment had gone silent even before he rang the doorbell. That made him a little less nervous, hoping that was a sign the arguing ex-couple had at least calmed down a little bit, but at the same time, it made him even more curious to hear at least a little bit more of their conversation. Freddie shifted his weight uncomfortably from one leg to the other as they waited for someone to answer the door, which didn't take long to happen.

Pam Puckett eyed the two up and down curiously as soon as she opened the front door, looking pretty surprised by their unexpected visit. "Can I help you?" she asked them, impatience clear in her voice.

"Yeah, uh..." Carly's voice seemed to be caught in her throat, her eyes slightly wide as she stared at the unfriendly woman standing right before her.

Noticing Carly's clear struggle, Freddie decided it was best if he spoke up. "Yes," he said, repeatedly telling himself to be careful with what he said. He shouldn't give away the fact that he knew Jorge was also in the apartment, or else Pam would know that he had been secretly listening to their conversation. "We're here to... to make you an invitation," he finally said.

"An invitation? What kind of invitation?" Pam asked, sounding slightly annoyed, as if all she wanted was for them to disappear so she could go back to talking to her ex-husband, which was most likely exactly what was going through her head in that moment; Freddie could easily tell that much.

"Well..." Freddie paused, not really sure what to say. He'd rather say what he had to say inside the apartment than out there in the hallway, but Pam didn't seem willing to give them that option.

"Who's there, Pam?" Jorge's voice could be heard from behind the blond woman, who unwillingly stepped aside when the man approached the front door so he could get a view of Freddie and Carly standing just outside the apartment. "Oh," was all Jorge said as he eyed the pair, recognizing the two from Sam and Melanie's funeral. Finally, he asked, "What are you two doing here?"

Pam didn't let them answer. "They said they're here to make me an invitation," she said, sounding even more impatient than before.

"Actually, sir," Carly suddenly spoke up, seeming to be a bit more relaxed to speak now that Jorge was also present in the conversation,"We'd also like to invite you. We were gonna talk to you after this, but now that you're here, we can invite you both right now." She still sounded a bit hesitant, though, for just like it happened with Freddie, Pam also freaked Carly out.

"Oh, well, then why don't you two come inside?" Jorge asked, before moving out of the way, allowing the two of them to enter the apartment. From the corner of his eye, Freddie caught a glimpse of Pam rolling her eyes at that.

Carly and Freddie walked past Jorge and into the living room silently.

And when they were inside, Jorge closed the front door calmly, before turning around to face them. "So..." the man began, sitting down on the couch and eyeing the two of them with clear curiosity in his eyes. "What would this invitation be about?"

Carly looked at Freddie, as if she expected him to say something, but he gestured with his head for her to speak. It had been her idea to go talk to Pam and Jorge in person in the first place, so it was technically her job to actually make the invitation.

"Well... You see..." Carly began to stutter, but she soon cleared her throat and took a deep breath, trying to build up some more confidence, and apparently it worked, since she didn't stutter one single time after that, even though she was still clearly a bit hesitant. "It's been almost a year since Sam and Melanie died, and I'm holding up an one year memorial for them. I wasn't able to make it happen exactly on December 17th, but it will happen in three weeks, at Ridgeway. And... Well, we'd like you two to come." She blurted it all out at once, and then silence took over the room.

Both Pam and Jorge seemed pretty surprised by what they had just heard, but Jorge was a lot more successful in hiding it than Pam, who seemed to be too shocked to respond.

Jorge cleared his throat after a long moment of silence. "I, uh..." The man seemed to be having quite some trouble with speaking for some reason. "We both appreciate what you're doing," he finally said, though his voice sounded slightly strangled. "Thank you for the invitation."

"We'll contact you two later with more details," Carly added, seeming to be completely oblivious to the tension that had suddenly started to grow in the room, which didn't go unnoticed by Freddie.

"Okay, uh... " Jorge sighed, clearly unsure of what to say to the two. "Thank you, once again."

It was clear to Freddie that the man's tense posture was a sign it was time for them to leave, but Carly didn't seem to have realized that, so he decided to speak up once again. "Well, we'd better get going, right, Carls?" he said, hoping that she wouldn't ask why or something like that, which he knew was something Carly would do.

"Uh..." The brunette girl gave him a confused look, but soon ended up saying, "Yeah, okay."

Freddie felt incredibly relieved when they finally walked out of that apartment and the door closed shut behind them, separating them from the other pair. It was only then that he noticed just how tense he had been the entire time he and Carly had been inside that apartment, and honestly, he felt as though his muscles would not relax completely any time soon.

"Well, that didn't go as bad as I thought it would," Carly admitted, breaking the silence as they made their way toward the elevator.

"Yeah, but it didn't go really well either," Freddie replied, his muscles still tense.

Carly simply shrugged as she said, "Whatever." She shook her head at Freddie, clearly unable to understand why he thought their visit had not gone so well. "We're still alive, aren't we?" she joked, smiling at him.

Freddie simply chuckled in response, and then looked away from her and moved his gaze down. The thoughts about the conversation he had overheard were still haunting him, even though he tried to push them to the back of his mind, at least for now.

The elevator arrived in just a few seconds, and they got to Bushwell Plaza soon after that. Freddie tried to excuse himself, saying that he was really tired because he hadn't had any sleep after the long plane ride from New Haven to Seattle and that he really needed to rest, when in fact he just wanted to be alone and try to process what he had heard, but Carly managed to make him spend some more time with her and Spencer over at her place, claiming that they hadn't seen each other for six months and that he could rest later.

Freddie lost count of how many times he spaced out, his thoughts wandering toward what he had heard, even though he tried his best to focus on what was happening around him. He could tell that Carly ignored it at first, but she ended up questioning him about it after dinner.

"What's gotten into you?" Carly asked, giving him a curious look. "You've been... quiet since we talked to Jorge and Pam."

Freddie simply shrugged, trying to avoid her gaze by looking down at his lap. The two of them were sitting on the couch, and Spencer was in the kitchen, doing the dishes while singing quietly to himself.

"It's nothing. I'm just..." he started, but he suddenly didn't know what else to say to her. He had actually considered telling her about what he had heard, but as he thought about it, he ended up deciding not to do it, or at least not right now. He wasn't sure about what the conversation actually meant, and he knew that he'd have to put a lot of thought into it. And maybe Carly could help him with that, but he preferred to keep his thoughts and assumptions to himself for the time being. Gibby had made it pretty clear that he was worried about Freddie's sanity, and that worry had gotten even worse after Freddie told him about the dream he had been having, and he could easily tell that Carly was just as worried. So maybe she would think that he might be overreacting, or that he had heard them wrong and that there had to be some plausible explanation for what Freddie had heard.

"It's about Sam, isn't it?" Carly asked, her voice suddenly earning a low and sad tone. Freddie didn't respond; he simply frowned, finally making himself look up at her. "I get it. It's been almost a year, but it doesn't feel like it. And no matter how many times I tell you that you should move on..." She shook her head lightly, before adding, "I don't think I have moved on myself." Her voice was so low it was barely a whisper.

"I don't think I ever will," Freddie replied in a just as low tone. He could easily see that Carly's eyes were starting to water, a sight he had somehow grown used to seeing a year ago, but now, after almost a year, he wasn't sure what he should do, or even if he should do anything at all.

It took her a few moments, but Carly soon managed to recompose herself. "I'm sorry," she began, brushing her hand over her closed eye as she tried to get rid of the unwelcome tears, "I..." She seemed unable to finish that.

"I, uh..." Freddie began, suddenly standing up from the couch. The atmosphere around them had gained a heavy aspect, and Freddie honestly couldn't wait to get out of there. "I'd better go."

"Okay..." Carly said, clearly unsure of what to say. "I'll see you tomorrow?" she asked, trying to smile at him, but the smile didn't reach her eyes.

"Yeah..." Freddie replied, before adding, "See ya." And with that, he exited the Shays' apartment and quickly walked into his own.

Freddie practically ran to his room as soon as he was inside his apartment and let himself fall onto his bed, not feeling the need to close the door, since his mother was traveling and wouldn't be back until after Christmas. Lying there with his eyes closed, he let every single thought he had tried to ignore take over his mind as he tried to understand what he had heard, but his thoughts were so messed up he ended up just as confused as he had been when he heard Pam and Jorge's conversation earlier that day.

He sighed in frustration, just then realizing how tired he really was. He hadn't slept well at all for the past three days, and the long plane ride he had gone through that morning had only made things even worse. He couldn't make himself think clearly even if he tried, and he soon realized just how heavy his eyelieds were. He told himself that he'd better shower before going to sleep, and it would probably even help him wake up a bit so he could keep trying to figure out the meaning behind that conversation, but he couldn't make himself get up from his bed.

And no matter how much he tried to stay awake, he soon found himself slowly drifting off to sleep.

* * *

**Author's Note: What did you think? Love it? Hate it? Please leave me a review! ;D**

**By the way, if you're wondering which vampire bloodline Sam, Melanie, Ryan, Tyler and Katelyn belong to, I haven't decided yet XD I just know they aren't from Mikael's or Finn's, for obvious reasons XP I'll probably make them part of the same bloodline all Mystic Falls's vampires are part of.**

**Thank you so much for reading! And don't forget to review ;)**

**xxiCarlyFanxx**


	7. Chapter 7: Late Night Plans

**Author's Note: Yeah, I know, took me long enough XD I hope this slightly longer chapter makes up for the long wait =P**

**By the way, thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter! It honestly means the world to me! =)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own iCarly or The Vampire Diaries!**

**Enjoy! ;)**

* * *

Darkness Times

Chapter 7: Late Night Plans

**Freddie Benson**

_What the hell is going on?_

That was the question that had been haunting Freddie since the moment he overheard the conversation between Pam and Jorge.

He had been repeating what he had heard over and over in his mind for the past two hours, trying to figure out the right meaning behind the words he had heard, but he just couldn't do it. Each sentence, if analyzed alone, could make a little bit of sense, but when he tried to place everything into a big context and try to find the meaning behind the whole conversation, that initially simple task just turned out to be pretty much impossible. So since he couldn't find a better way to do it, he decided to examine each part of the conversation separately, hoping that way he might find something that actually made sense in there.

At first, Jorge was talking about a trip he wanted to make. Freddie found nothing out of the ordinary there, but things started to get confusing when he mentioned a name.

Tyler.

Jorge said that this Tyler guy had destroyed their family and their lives, killed their son and their daughters... So did that mean that he was the murderer who had killed Sam and Melanie? _Probably,_ Freddie thought, since he couldn't make any other conclusion out of that part of the conversation.

But then, what did Jorge mean by wanting to make Tyler pay for what he had done? The first thing that crossed Freddie's mind was to have him arrested, but he could clearly understand by Jorge's tone that wasn't exactly what he meant. What was it then? Freddie couldn't know.

Freddie decided to drop that line of thought for a moment, since he knew that he wouldn't be able to figure it out even if he tried to for hours. The next thing that confused him was that Pam insisted that Jorge had found _them_, and based on the rest of the conversation, Freddie could only assume that she was referring to Sam and Melanie.

But then, did that mean that… They were still alive? Even though Freddie knew that he probably shouldn't start building up hope simply based on a conversation he couldn't even understand, he just couldn't help it. What if Sam was still alive? He still couldn't be sure if she really was or not, but the single existance of that possibility was already enough to get him out of the trance he had been in throughout the past whole year.

Going back to the conversation topic, Pam kept insisting that Sam and Melanie weren't her daughters anymore after they woke up and 'became what they became', according to her, but Jorge insisted that they were still the same and that they couldn't ignore the fact that the twins were still out there somewhere.

Freddie was pretty sure that anyone would be extremely confused by that if they were him. The only meaning Freddie could make out of that was that both Sam and Melanie were indeed still alive, and that Pam and Jorge were pretty much aware of that, meaning that they had lied to everyone about the twins' death.

But how could that be possible? And why would Pam and Jorge hide the truth from everyone else like they did? And most importantly, why would Sam and Melanie even agree to that? But then, why did Jorge say that Tyler had killed them, if they were still alive? And what did Pam mean when she said that Sam and Melanie had stopped being her daughters after they woke up and became what they became? What would that be?

Freddie shook his head, trying to clear up his thoughts, but it didn't work at all. He needed to find out the truth, but he didn't know how to do it. He couldn't simply knock on Pam's or Jorge's door and ask them why they had possibly lied to everyone about Sam and Melanie's death, but he didn't want to just sit there and do nothing about it either. He needed to get the bottom of that story, but he couldn't think of a way to do it.

And as that thought crossed his head, Freddie suddenly remembered something else from the ex-couple's conversation; something that had, for some reason, slipped his mind until that very moment, but that right now seemed to be a very important part of the puzzle he so desperately wished to solve. Pam had mentioned a letter from Sam that she bet Jorge still had. Maybe if Freddie could find that letter somehow, then he'd be able to understand things better. But where could it be?

He had an idea, but he didn't exactly like it.

If Pam was right, Jorge still kept the letter somewhere, and if Freddie somehow managed to find it, he'd be able to figure it all out, or at least understand things a little bit better. But where could that letter be? He thought about it for a long time, until he finally came to the conclusion that the only place it made sense for Jorge to keep the letter was probably in his house, which was the same one that had been Pam's just a few months ago.

But then, how would Freddie be able to read it?

Well, that was the part he didn't really like about the idea.

Breaking into someone's house could really get someone in trouble, and knowing that the person he was talking about was a police officer, he knew that if he got caught, he'd probably end up spending the rest of his life in prison. But he couldn't think of any other way to clear things up.

He knew that Jorge worked until late at night, so maybe if he went there in the evening—when it was already dark enough for him not to draw too much attention—and left fast enough so Jorge wouldn't get home and catch him there, then maybe it could work out well.

But he knew that he couldn't do it alone. He'd need someone to keep an eye on things outside the house while he was in there, and if anything went wrong, the person would warn him, so that way he'd be able to leave the house before getting caught.

Freddie could only think of one person to do that, but he suddenly felt conflicted on whether or not he should ask that person for help. He knew very well what they would say and what they would think, but the single thought of actually seeing Sam again was just so overwhelming that he ended up deciding that no matter what he'd hear from anyone, he had to give his crazy idea a shot.

But... Was all that really worth it? Maybe he was actually reading too much into things, and maybe he was only making a fool of himself, building up false hope that would only make him end up hurt in the end. Could Sam really be alive? Was that even possible?

Freddie shook his head, pushing all those thoughts to the back of his mind. There was only one way to find out the truth, and he knew that if he really wanted to know the answers to all those questions, he needed to do something about it.

Sighing, he grabbed his phone and dialed the phone number of the person he hoped would agree to help him.

_3 hours later..._

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Gibby asked Freddie as he parked his car about two blocks away from Jorge's house.

"Look, Gib, if you don't want to go with me, that's fine," Freddie said, resting his hand on the car handle, ready to open the door. "I'll do it by myself, then."

Gibby quickly stopped him. "No way! I'm not gonna let you do something so stupid like that by yourself!" He shook his head lightly from one side to the other. "And that's not what I meant it like, anyway," he added. "I'm asking you if you really think this is all worth it." Gibby said the last part hesitantly, as if afraid of how Freddie might respond.

It annoyed Freddie deeply how everyone seemed to be walking on eggshells around him, which was precisely what Gibby was doing in that moment—hesitating to say whatever was in his mind, afraid that Freddie might just lose it at any second. "Why wouldn't it be worth it?" he asked, even though he already knew what was in his friend's mind.

"Well…" Gibby seemed to be choosing his words carefully. "What if you find nothing in there? What if you understood everything you heard the wrong way?"

"And what other way is there, then?" Freddie asked, trying not to say something he'd regret later. He understood why Gibby was saying that—he was worried that if Freddie didn't find anything he was expecting to find in the house, he'd just snap, since all the hope he had started to build up after he had overheard that conversation would just come crashing down over him.

He hadn't told Gibby everything he had heard, only that he had mistakenly overheard Pam and Jorge talking and that they had said something about the twins' death that had really intrigued him. He said that he thought they were keeping something from everyone and that he wanted to find out what it was, and the only way to do it was to find something Pam had mentioned, which Jorge probably kept in his house.

Gibby had been hesitant at first, but he ended up agreeing to help Freddie anyway, since he knew that if he didn't help his friend, Freddie would try to do it by himself, and that could end up having pretty bad consequences.

"I don't know, man, I just…" Gibby trailed off for a moment, and when he spoke again, his voice grew much lower. "I just don't think it's healthy for you to put yourself through something like this. I mean, what if it was all just a misunderstanding? You've gotten so much better over what happened. Maybe something like this could get you down like that all over again, and I'm sure no one wants that for you."

"Thank you, Gibby, but I know what I'm doing," Freddie said, even though the meaning of Gibby's words truly worried him, because he knew deep down inside that maybe his friend was right. "Let's just go." He shook his head as he got out of the car, trying to get those thoughts out of his head. He wasn't wrong about all that; he just couldn't be wrong. Or at least that was what he kept telling himself as the two made their way to Jorge's house.

The plan itself was pretty simple. Freddie would somehow manage to get inside the house and look for the letter, while Gibby would stay hidden somewhere outside the house to keep an eye on things. If anything went wrong, like Jorge getting home early that night, Gibby would warn Freddie by sending him a text, so he'd have the chance to leave the house before it was too late.

It sure wasn't a perfect or flawless plan, but that was the best Freddie could come up with in the little time he had had to think about it.

They were both wearing black, so it was harder see them at night. Even though it was still evening, it was already as dark as night, since it was already winter in Seattle.

Gibby hid himself behind some bushes in the front garden of the house across from Jorge's and Freddie headed to the house itself. It didn't take him long to pick the lock of the backdoor, which was something he had learned from Sam a few years ago. When he heard a low click signaling that the door was now unlocked, Freddie pushed it open slowly and walked inside hesitantly.

He closed the door shut behind him and turned on the small flashlight he had brought with him. He didn't want to risk turning on any lights inside the house, fearing that it could alert the neighbors about his presence. He looked around calmly, just then realizing that he was standing in the center of the kitchen.

Freddie walked to the living room slowly, and when he got there, he paused, not sure where to look next. He had been so worried about getting inside the house without getting caught that he hadn't put much thought into the search itself, and now he had no idea where to start from.

The whole house was so silent that the only sound he could hear was from his own breathing as he let his eyes wander over everything in the living room, suddenly remembering the last time he had been there.

It was about three weeks before they had all gone off to college, over one year and a half ago. They had done their last webcast that night and had decided to have a movie night to celebrate it. But as Spencer had a date over and Freddie's mother was at home and wouldn't let them watch anything more violent than a cooking show, Sam said that they could go over to her house, since her mother was away for the weekend.

Freddie and Gibby let the girls choose the movies, so they ended up renting a romantic movie Carly said she had wanted to watch for a while and a horror movie that, according to Sam, wasn't scary at all, but the other three had their doubts about that.

At Sam's house, Freddie and Gibby set up the first movie while Carly and Sam made popcorn and tried to find something to drink around the house that didn't belong to Sam's mother's alcohol stock.

They began with the horror movie, even though Carly didn't seem pleased with that at all. Throughout the whole movie, she kept screaming and covering her eyes with her hands, rocking back and forth on the couch and muttering to herself that nothing she was seeing was real. Sam's reaction to the movie was the complete opposite—she laughed at almost everything in the movie and kept saying that it was hilarious. Both Freddie and Gibby remained calm during the whole movie, not really frightened by it, but also not amused either.

When the time for the romantic movie came, Carly breathed out a loud sigh of relief. And throughout the entire movie, she kept saying how everything was cute; how the guy was sweet; how she wished that her previous boyfriend, whom she had broken up with that same week, was like that, and so on.

The other three didn't seem really interested in the movie in the beginning, but near the end, Gibby was sobbing because of the ending, and so was Carly. Freddie shot the two an amused look, and then looked down, just then realizing that there was an extra weight resting on his right shoulder.

A smile formed on his lips when he realized that Sam had fallen asleep with her head resting on his shoulder. He watched her for a moment, thinking of how cute she looked when she was asleep. She looked so vulnerable it was almost impossible to believe everything she could do when she was awake.

At that time, Freddie still had hope that someday, he'd be able to tell Sam how he felt about her, and he still believed that maybe there was a chance that they'd be together someday and that things would work out for the two of them. But now he could see how wrong he had been. Or at least that was what he thought at the moment, since he still had no proof that Sam was still alive.

Shaking his head as he tried to clear up his thoughts and focus on his current task, Freddie looked around once again and decided to begin his search on the second floor of the house. He walked to the stairs and climbed up to the second floor slowly and soundlessly.

The sound of his own heartbeat seemed to be loud enough for him to hear as he walked down the hallway and peered through a few open doors, before finally finding the room he had been looking for. He took a deep breath before walking inside, trying to prepare himself for what he was about to do, and then hesitantly walked in.

Freddie had never been to Sam's room before. Of course, he had already been to her house more than once, but his knowledge of the old Puckett residence didn't go beyond the first floor.

He looked around calmly, studying the place curiously. It was extremely different from how he had imagined it to be. Instead of the dark colored walls and messy place he had expected to find, he found lilac walls and no mess at all. Everything was so different from how he had thought it would be that he even wondered for a second if he wasn't in the wrong room.

But he knew it was the right room when his eyes found the pictures on the nightstand. There were at least seven picture frames with pictures from several different years there. The majority of them were pictures of Sam, Freddie and Carly, but sometimes Gibby and Spencer were also in them.

Freddie smiled as he examined the pictures for a moment, his eyes tearing up a bit. Even though he had been trying to put up a good face, pretending to be feeling better about Sam's death, especially when he was around Carly, on the inside, he felt just as hurt and broken as in the night he was first told she had died. And it hurt, horribly.

When he was finally able to tear his eyes away from the pictures, Freddie looked around one more time, ready to leave the room before he had some kind of mental breakdown in there, when something suddenly caught his eye.

He walked up to the farthest wall of the room hesitantly and when he got there and laid his eyes on what had caught his attention, his breath got caught in his throat.

There was a dark red stain on the wall, and the only thing it could be made of was blood. For a moment, Freddie was completely frozen. Could it... Could it be Sam's blood? And if it was... Was that the place where she had died?

It was suddenly extremely difficult for Freddie to breathe, and he practically ran out of the room, his heart racing widly inside his chest. Seeing the blood on the wall and knowing that it could be Sam's... The possibility of being in the exact same place where the girl he loved had possibly died... It was all too much for him.

It took him several seconds to finally be able to calm down, and when he finally did, he resumed his search. And soon after that, he found himself entering a room that looked like an office. Assuming it was Jorge's office, he began to look around the place, thinking that if the letter was somewhere in that house, it would probably be there. But the problem was... Where could it be?

He started going through the drawers on the sides of the desk placed near the wall, but there was just so much paper in there that he soon started to doubt he'd ever find what he was looking for. There were so many police files and that kind of stuff inside the drawers that he started to feel like his search would never end. When he finished going through one drawer, there was always another untouched one right below, and when he opened it, it seemed to have even more papers inside it than the previous one.

He was about to start looking through the papers inside the fifth drawer of the desk when Freddie felt his phone buzzing inside his back jeans pocket. He pulled it out quickly, his heart starting to beat faster as he read the message he had just received from Gibby.

_**'Jorge's here! Get out of there, now!'**_

Freddie looked down at his watch briefly and noticed it was some minutes after eight o'clock. _How the hell did time go by so fast?_

Freddie quickly stood up and practically slammed all the drawers shut, before running out of the room and toward the stairs that led to the first floor. But it was already too late. Before he had even reached the top of the staircase, he heard the click of the front door being unlocked and then the sound of the door opening.

He suddenly started to wonder how much time in prison someone could get for breaking into a police officer's house, panicking as he looked around, trying to think of a way to leave the house without being noticed.

**Jorge Puckett**

Jorge unlocked the front door of his house calmly.

He had had a pretty calm day at work, the only bad thing about it being his argument with Pam haunting his every thought since the day before. Their discussion just wouldn't leave his mind, no matter how many times he tried to forget about it. And even though he had constantly tried to push it all to the back of his mind, Pam's words about the twins kept haunting him during every single second of the day.

Sighing, he threw his jacket on the couch and sat down, resting his head on his hands. He had expected Pam's reaction when she learned about his trip to Jacksonville to be bad, but it ended up being a lot worse than he had imagined it would. She just didn't seem to understand how important this was to him. If only...

The phone rang.

Jorge looked up abruptly, startled, but soon ended up grabbing his cell phone from his uniform pants pocket to answer the call, not even bothering to look at the caller's ID before lifting the mobile up to his right ear. "Hello?" he spoke into the phone, his voice tired.

But as soon as he recognized the voice coming from the other end of the phone line, he didn't feel tired from working the whole day anymore. _"Officer Puck—I mean, Jorge?"_ Matthew's voice echoed through the phone.

"Matthew! Do you have any news?" Jorge asked eagerly.

_"Yep, actually, I do,"_ he told Jorge calmly. _"Just like I had thought, Tyler is indeed here in Jacksonville."_

Jorge suddenly felt anxious, and he had to make a brief pause before responding, trying to make his suddenly racing heart calm down before he had a heart attack. "Are you sure?" he couldn't stop himself from asking.

_"Yes, he's definitely here."_ Matthew made a short pause. _"But there's something else I need to tell you."_

"What is it?" Jorge asked, suddenly curious.

_"Tyler is not the only one I found here,"_ Matthew explained hesitantly, letting his voice hanging the air for a moment. For some reason, he did not elaborate any further, but there was actually no need for him to.

Jorge's eyes widened as the meaning behind Matthew's words slowly sunk in. "Wait, do you mean that..." He shook his head from one side to the other, struggling to say the words that seemed to have gotten caught in his throat. "Sam and Melanie are in Jacksonville?" he finally asked, his mouth suddenly feeling unusually dry.

_"Exactly,"_ Matthew replied, before explaining, "_I just thought I should warn you about who you might be running into while you're here." _

"I appreciate that, but that actually doesn't change anything." Jorge, for some reason, felt the need to say that, though he was not entirely sure who he was trying to convince; Matthew or himself. "I'm still going," Jorge said firmly, and made a short pause. His thoughts had grown slightly confusing after the last piece of information he'd just received. Finally, wishing the conversation to be over with so he could have a moment to think about what he had just heard, he said, "Thank you, Matthew. For everything."

_"It's nothing, really,"_ Matthew replied, apparently sensing Jorge's sudden discomfort. _"I'll talk to you later."_

"Yeah," Jorge replied absentmindedly, and before he could hang up himself, the line went dead.

It took a few seconds until the meaning of Matthew's words actually sunk in.

After almost a whole year, Jorge would finally be able to have his revenge for what Tyler had done. He had thought about driving a stake right through the vampire's heart every single day since the unfortunate night the previous year when his whole life had fallen apart, and now, he'd finally be able to do it.

But in that moment, there was something else in his mind.

There was a tiny possibility that he might end up coming face-to-face with his daughters, and he didn't know how he should feel about that.

He had tried to avoid the thoughts about what they had become, not wanting to think of his own daughters the way he had learned to think of vampires—monsters that existed for the single purpose of creating chaos among the human race, and the duty to protect as many people from those creatures as possible had fallen upon him. But he refused to think of both Sam and Melanie as monsters, or at least not until he had any kind of proof that the two girls he knew were actually gone for good, but even the single thought of it already pained him.

Even though he still couldn't know for sure if he'd actually come across the two, the single knowledge that meeting them was in fact a possibility was already enough to make him feel extremely nervous and anxious, mostly because he had no idea what he'd do if he ever met them again. What should he do? What should he say? How should he act? Even if he believed that the twins were still the same people they used to be, he couldn't ignore the fact that they were both vampires now.

_And what if…What if they aren't the same?_ He couldn't stop the thought he had been struggling to avoid from slipping into his mind.

Jorge had never considered staking them, even if he had the chance; even if his own life depended on it. They were his daughters, and nothing in the world would ever change that. Even if the truth was that they were now monsters in the shape of his daughter, wearing their bodies like they were some kind of living disguise, he'd still look at them and see Sam and Melanie.

He had tried to protect them from all that. He had done his best to try to give them a normal and safe life, away from anything that had to do with the supernatural, but he had failed terribly. Instead of protecting them, he ended up being the one responsible for making them cross the line between normality and supernatural. They were pushed away from their own lives and became part of a world they didn't even know that existed, and there was no way to bring them back.

The truth was that Jorge blamed himself for what had happened. He blamed himself for not killing Tyler as well when he killed the female vampire. He blamed himself for being so clueless about what was going on; for not knowing about Tyler's desire for revenge. He blamed himself for not being there to protect the twins against Tyler. He blamed himself for not being able to stop Tyler from taking away their lives. He blamed himself for letting them go.

He had kept all that guilt bottled up inside of him for the past whole year, but now, it all came crashing down over him, and his hands clenched into fists as the desire for revenge grew even bigger inside of him, overwhelming him with anger and hatred for the vampire that had destroyed his whole life.

He remained silent and unmoving like that for a few minutes, trying to make himself calm down before standing up from the couch and walking toward the staircase a few steps behind the couch.

When he reached the second floor, he walked down the hallway. His legs seemed to have developed a will of their own, guiding him to the place he had done his best to avoid for the past twelve months.

He found himself stepping into Sam's room, a place that brought back memories he had done his best to bury deep inside of his mind, but now, he let them all surface and engulf him.

He suddenly felt as if Sam was standing there right in front of him, the white part of her eyes red and black veins under her eyes, her hands covering her mouth as she screamed in pain, since her fangs were coming out for the first time, and apparently, that hurt a lot. He remembered seeing the shock in her eyes as soon as she caught sight of her face in the mirror. But most importantly, he remembered the pain he felt when he looked at her face and saw her become the thing he dreaded the most in the world.

The blood stain was still on the wall, near the window. It wasn't really big—he could even classify it as tiny—but its presence still held a huge meaning to him.

Jorge remembered the day he moved in that house, a few days after he had been released from the hospital. The first room he visited was precisely that one, and he found himself standing in that same spot he was standing in right now. That was also the day he found out the explanation as to how Sam had completed the transition into a vampire. He knew that she needed to drink human blood within the next 24 hours after Tyler had turned her or else she would die, a fact that had been being discussed downstairs in the living room by Pam and Jorge before they heard Sam scream. They had come to the decision that they should let Sam decide whether or not she'd complete the transition. They'd explain everything to her and let her make her choice, since they both knew it would be completely unfair to make that decision for her; it was her life, not theirs.

But Tyler didn't seem to want either Sam or Melanie to have that choice, since he made sure they'd both complete the transition by leaving a blood bag for Sam somewhere in her room and a girl compelled to cut herself for Melanie to feed on. At first, the only one Jorge could be sure had been done by Tyler was the first one; the note attached to the empty blood bag left no doubt about that. He was only sure about the second one when he found out that the wound on the dead girl's wrist could only have been self-inflicted, and Jorge couldn't think of any explanation for that other than mind-compulsion.

After eyeing his surroundings for another long moment, he calmly left the room and walked to his office.

There, he walked straight to his desk and rounded it, pausing when he was standing right in front of the painting that hung on the wall behind the chair. He eyed the painting of a black horse running through a green field for less than a second before holding the painting by the sides of its white frame and calmly pulling it off the wall.

He placed the painting carefully on the floor, resting its back against the wall, before looking up once again, staring at what had been hidden behind the painting.

A safe.

He quickly entered the combination by pressing the metal buttons right under the tiny green screen, which made the safe door open with a low beep.

He didn't only keep money or things of monetary value inside that safe. There were also things that had some kind of emotional value for him in there, and some that he didn't want anyone to know he still had with him.

As he looked through the things inside the safe and kept searching for what he was looking for, he came across two newspaper pages he had carefully folded together about a year ago. He hesitantly picked them up and unfolded the two, separating them.

They were both pages from the Seattle Tribute obituaries, but each one of them was from a different year. On the first one, which was from 2007, he read:

**Ryan Puckett, 02/13/1990-05/29/2007, killed in a car accident.**

And on the other one, this one from the year before, 2012, he read:

**Samantha Puckett, 04/17/1994-12/17/2012, murdered.**

**Melanie Puckett, 04/17/1994-12/17/2012, murdered.**

Jorge held the two pages in front of his eyes for a few more seconds, before finally putting them back inside the safe. And that was when he spotted what he had been looking for all along. He picked it up in his shaky hands and held it folded for a moment, before unfolding it and staring down at the familiar handwriting written on the piece of paper in his hands.

Sam's letter.

He had read it so many times that he had soon come to memorizing it, but he still got it out of the safe sometimes to simply run his eyes over it. Pam didn't understand why he still kept it, and he knew that she never would. He still kept the letter because it gave him hope; it made him think that his daughters weren't actually gone like Pam thought.

As he thought back at his ex-wife, her words echoed inside his mind.

_"Sam and Melanie are dead. You can't change that, and even if you ever find them, what's the point of bringing them back? They're not our daughters anymore."_

Pam was wrong, she had to be. And he'd show her that. Now, the possibility of meeting the twins again didn't entirely frighten him. He even let a small smile spread across his lips as he thought about it.

He had found them.

Jorge sighed, finally tearing his eyes away from the letter. And that was when he realized that there was something weird about his office. The papers on his desk weren't the way he had left them. It seemed as if someone had been looking through his stuff and didn't even bother to put everything back where it had been before.

He looked around, wondering how someone could—

The sound of his cell phone ringing filled the air once again, and he hurried to answer the incoming call, thinking that it could be Matthew. But when he looked at the caller ID he saw that it wasn't Matthew, but Carl, an officer that worked with him at the station.

"What is it?" he asked quickly, his voice earning a serious and professional tone. He then heard Carl's voice telling him that they needed him at the station immediately.

The preoccupation with the papers on his desk vanished from his mind quickly as he listened to Carl's words carefully and absentmindedly laid the letter he had been holding on the desk right in front of him. When the phone call was over, his mind was completely focused on what the other officer had just described to him, so he hurried to close the safe, before putting the painting back on the wall.

Jorge then walked out of his office hurriedly, before quickly leaving the house, headed to the Seattle Police Station.

**Freddie Benson**

Freddie breathed out a sigh of relief when he heard the front door closing shut downstairs, before hesitantly stepping out of his hiding place. He had struggled for several painful seconds to think of safe place where he could hide until, in the worst possible scenario he allowed himself to imagine, Jorge went to sleep.

Jorge's office was the first room he discarded as a possible hiding place, just like Jorge's room, another room he could only assume had previously been Pam's and the bathroom in the hallway. And the only possibility there was left was Sam's room.

But as he walked out of the office and stood by the beginning of the staircase that led to the first floor of the house, he heard a question that made his heart beat like crazy and his mind go numb for a second.

_"Wait, do you mean that... Sam and Melanie are in Jacksonville?"_

Jorge was clearly on the phone, and even though a little voice in the back of his head kept telling Freddie that Jorge could go upstairs at any second, he suddenly found himself unable to move from where he stood. But after several seconds, he finally managed to make his legs move and started walking down the hallway, headed to Sam's room.

He practically tip-toed into the room, avoiding at all costs looking in the direction of the blood-stained wall and walking straight through the door that led to the bathroom. He left the door just like he had found it—partially open, which would allow him to hear the sound of any one of the doors in the house closing shut.

He didn't dare to move an inch while Jorge was still in the house, fearing that even the lowest sound would end up giving away his presence, and his heart almost jumped right out of his chest when Jorge walked inside Sam's bedroom.

But soon enough, Freddie heard the sound of Jorge descending the stairs and closing the front door shut soon after that, and a huge wave of relief washed over him as soon as he realized that he was alone in the house once again.

He silently made his way back to Jorge's office, still afraid to make any sound. He suddenly remembered the mess he had made in the office, and he knew that he had to put everything back where it had been before he left, or else Jorge would know someone had been there.

He quickly walked over to Jorge's desk and was about to start organizing all those papers when something that hadn't been there when he had left the office a few minutes ago caught his eye. He stared at it curiously for a moment, before reaching out for the small piece of paper resting on the desk and picking it up.

And when he laid his eyes on it, his heart sank.

He found himself holding the letter he had been looking for all along, which was the reason he was there in that house in the first place.

Freddie recognized Sam's handwriting right away, and his heart started beating faster as he read the letter he held right before his eyes. He lost track of time as he simply stood there, reading and re-reading the letter several times.

And as everything he had heard the previous day dawned on him once again, a thought he would have judged as impossible not seventy-two hours ago slipped into his mind, and right now, he couldn't deny the truth in those words.

_Sam is alive._

That thought echoed inside his head over a million times, but its meaning took some time to actually sink in, and when that finally happened, a smile spread across Freddie's lips. He couldn't believe it, but it was true. Sam had been alive all along.

But... How was it possible? If she and Melanie were alive, then why did they fake their own deaths? Why would they lie to everyone? Why would they make everyone who cared about them go through so much suffering for absolutely no reason? Why did they even have to leave in the first place, like Sam said in the letter? And why would their parents agree to that, and even play along?

Freddie didn't have the answer to any of those questions, but he expected to have them all soon. He needed to get to the bottom of that story, and he was determined to do it, no matter what he'd have to do to get there.

He suddenly remembered what he had heard just a few minutes earlier, and he was suddenly sure of what he'd do next.

He'd go to Jacksonville.

But he'd go on his own. He had already dragged Gibby into too much danger that night, and he'd better go on by himself. He'd just have to tell Gibby that he hadn't found anything in the house, and he was sure Gibby would believe that, since he didn't think Freddie would actually find anything in there in the first place.

Freddie folded the letter and stuffed it inside his pocket, not actually caring if Jorge realized it was missing, before walking down the stairs hurriedly and walking out the back door.

And as soon as he stepped outside, he ran into Gibby, who seemed to be about to go inside.

"What are you doing here?" Freddie whispered to his friend, who seemed to be out of breath.

"I was going in there to get you!" Gibby whispered back, his tone urgent. "What took you so long? It's been almost twenty minutes since Jorge left, but you wouldn't leave! I thought he had killed you!"

Freddie couldn't stop himself from rolling his eyes at him. "He wouldn't have killed me if he had seen me," Freddie told Gibby, who didn't seem completely convinced.

"I still had to be sure," Gibby replied, shaking his head lightly. "So does that mean he didn't see you?"

"Yeah, but he was close. If whoever called him hadn't called, I'd be at the police station right now, behind a set of bars," Freddie answered, and made a brief pause. "I think we should get the hell out of here before Jorge comes back home," he added.

"Yeah, we should," Gibby agreed, and the two rounded the house quickly before making their way back to Freddie's car.

As Freddie drove to Gibby's house, where he'd drop his friend off, a tense silence built up inside the car. Freddie knew Gibby had several questions in his mind in that moment, but his friend refused to voice them for some reason, as if hesitant to speak.

After a few minutes, though, Gibby suddenly broke the silence. "So... Did you find anything?" he asked, sounding pretty hesitant as he looked out the window, and Freddie waited a few seconds before answering, which made Gibby wonder if he had even heard him.

"Not really," Freddie replied lowly. "I didn't find what I was looking for, but I did hear something interesting."

"How interesting?" Gibby asked, raising an eyebrow at his friend.

"I heard Jorge talking to someone on the phone, and he was talking about going to Jacksonville," Freddie said.

"And?" Gibby asked, sounding impatient.

"That trip seems like a big deal to him," Freddie replied, not taking his eyes off the road. He was trying to make it seem like he was trying to see something where there was actually nothing to see, thinking that Jorge's trip to Jacksonville had something to do with the twins, but when actually, to Gibby, it clearly seemed like it didn't.

"And how can that be so interesting?" Gibby asked, sounding slightly annoyed.

"Well, don't you think that probably means something?" Freddie asked.

"No, it doesn't!" Gibby exclaimed, throwing his arms up in the air in frustration. "Freddie, listen to me. I thought that maybe this little insane plan of yours to break into Jorge's house would open your eyes, but I can clearly see that it didn't! I hoped that after you found nothing in there, you'd finally be able to get this out of the way and live your life! I'm sorry that I have to be the one to say this, but you have to move on!"

"Well, that's the thing, Gibby," Freddie began, his voice earning a serious tone as he tried to keep his voice low and controlled, something Gibby was clearly not making a single effort to do, "I don't think I can move on."

"You have to! You have to live your life! Do you really think Sam would want this for you if she was still here? Do you really think that she'd want you to keep hurting over her death like this, letting your life pass you by? You have to forget about her!" As Gibby spoke, Freddie parked the car in front of Gibby's house, but he didn't turn off the engine.

"I know you're right, Gibby, trust me. But I just…" Freddie shook his head lightly, closing his eyes, before opening them again a moment later, finally looking up at his friend. "I just can't forget about her, no matter how much I try to," he whispered.

Gibby stared at him for a long moment, until he finally sighed in defeat. He grabbed the door handle and pushed the car door open, before stepping out of Freddie's car. "I'm your friend, Freddie, and I just want the best for you. Don't forget that," Gibby said, before closing the car door shut loudly without even waiting for a reply and turning around.

Freddie watched as his friend made his way up to the front porch, where he paused to send a quick glance toward Freddie's car, before vanishing from sight as soon as he closed the front door shut behind him.

Freddie let out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding.

He didn't like arguing with his friend, but making Gibby think that his trip to Jacksonville wouldn't lead anywhere would prevent his friend from wanting to go with him. Even though Gibby was his best male friend, he wanted to go after Sam alone.

That last thought brought a smile back to his lips as he drove away from Gibby's house and headed to Bushwell Plaza.

Since the night his mother had showed up at Carly's apartment to give everyone the news that Sam and Melanie were dead, since that very moment, the thing he wished for the most in the world was to find out that all that had been a lie, and that Sam was still alive somewhere. And now, it was finally happening.

And he'd find her, no matter what he had to do.

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**Author's Note: Uhhhh, so Freddie is going to Jacksonville, and so is Jorge. Things are gonna get interesting real fast... ;P**

**Thank you so much for reading! ;D**

**Reviews make me extremely happy ;)**

**xxiCarlyFanxx**


	8. Chapter 8: Jacksonville

**Author's Note: I'm pretty sure you're all tired of hearing my apologies for my lack of updates, so I'll just shut up and go on with the story XP**

**Disclaimer: I don't own iCarly or The Vampire Diaries!**

**Enjoy! ;)**

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Darkness Times

Chapter 8: Jacksonville

**Freddie Benson**

The next day, Freddie had everything he'd need packed up and ready for his upcoming trip. His mother was visiting his aunt Clara in North Carolina, who had suddenly come down with a really bad case of rashes and had called Freddie's mother five days ago, practically begging for her medical assistance, since Marissa was a nurse.

Freddie's mother didn't seem really pleased with the idea of leaving Freddie alone for Christmas, and she had insisted that he went with her, but he told her that he'd be just fine spending Christmas at Carly's place, just like he always did. And also, he didn't want to spend over a week with the hygiene-obsessed side of his family. But of course, he kept that last part to himself.

Freddie was glad that his mother wasn't around, because he knew that she wouldn't agree with his sudden trip to Jacksonville, mostly because he wouldn't be able to tell her why he was going there in the first place. He couldn't just tell her that he was going after the girl he had been in love with for the past three years, who was supposed to be dead for the past whole year but might actually be on the other side of the country, still alive, and that he was basing that theory on two conversations he wasn't even supposed to have heard and a letter he had been able to read when he broke into the said girl's father's house, who happened to be a cop.

Yeah, she'd never let him do that.

But even if she had told him not to go, he still would. He had suffered over Sam's death for almost a year, and now, nothing would be able to keep him away from her anymore. He was not a minor anymore; he was nineteen, so his mother couldn't tell him what to do. It wasn't that he didn't respect her as his mother, but there was nothing in the world he wanted more than to finally see Sam again; to hear the magical sound of her voice and to stare into those crystal blue eyes of hers. He wanted to be able to hold her and never let her go again.

Freddie had told Carly and the others that he'd be visiting a cousin for the next few days, which wasn't exactly a lie. He had called his cousin Maggie, who happened to live in Jacksonville, as soon as he got home the previous night, telling her that he had something to deal with in Jacksonville and he'd like to know if he could stay at her place for a few days. She seemed pretty happy with the idea, considering that they hadn't seen each other for at least seven years.

When Freddie told everyone about his trip that morning, Carly asked him how many days he'd be out of Seattle, clearly worried that he wouldn't be there for the 24th, but Freddie promised her that he'd be back in time for Christmas Eve. He was extremely glad that he had already bought everyone's presents about two weeks earlier, since he was never used to leaving things to the last minute, so now he didn't need to worry about it.

Gibby didn't seem pleased with the idea of his trip at all, but he didn't say anything in front of the others, and Freddie knew that he was probably frustrated that Freddie hadn't listened to what he had told him about moving on the night before.

But as soon as Freddie left the Shay's apartment, heading into his own, Gibby followed him.

"So you're really going through with this?" Gibby asked as soon as the two were inside the Benson's apartment and the door had closed shut behind them.

"What made you think I wouldn't?" Freddie asked, finally turning around to face his friend.

"I thought that maybe you'd wake up and see that you're just fooling yourself with this trip, but now I see that I shouldn't have kept my hopes up," Gibby admitted.

Freddie crossed his arms over his chest and stared at his friend for a brief moment. "You just don't understand," he said finally.

"You're right, I don't. I don't understand how you can let your life pass you by like this! What happened one year ago needs to stay in the past, or else you'll be stuck forever!" Gibby exclaimed, clearly losing his patience.

"Gib, listen to me," Freddie started. "I need to do this. If I don't, I'll just keep wondering what would have happened if I did, and… I need to know the truth."

Gibby stared him for a few seconds, as if considering what he had just heard. Then, he nodded lightly. "Fine, do whatever you want. But don't say I didn't warn you when you come back empty handed." He then turned on his heel and walked out the front door without casting a single glance behind.

Freddie felt bad for about one hour after their argument, but now, he knew it had been necessary.

Freddie sighed, running his hands through his hair. He had already said goodbye to his friends, and his luggage was ready to go, but his flight would only leave in over three hours. He was supposed to be at the airport about one hour before his flight departure, so that meant he had to wait about one hour and a half to leave, considering that the ride to the airport took about thirty minutes. He'd call a cab about fifteen minutes before it was time to leave, even though the taxi would probably be there in ten minutes.

He didn't know what to do. He tried to occupy himself with anything he could think of, but nothing he did seemed to be entertaining enough to get his mind off things for even five minutes. He'd constantly look down at his watch, sometimes realizing that it hadn't even been one minute since the last time he had checked the time.

After one whole hour of alternating between playing with his laptop and flipping through the channels on his TV, Freddie gave up on trying to make himself busy and simply started pacing around the apartment impatiently. His bag, which he had already checked three times, lay right next to the door. The sight only made him want to leave even more badly.

Finally, it was time to call a cab, which took another ten painful minutes to arrive, just like Freddie had expected it to. Freddie hopped into the elevator and pressed the button to go down to the lobby, before leaning his back against the elevator wall as he waited for the way too long elevator ride to come to an end.

And when Freddie stepped out of the elevator and into the lobby, he was kindly greeted by Lewbert, who seemed to be in an even worse mood than usual, if that was even possible.

"NO BAGS IN MY LOBBY! THIS IS NOT A HOTEL! I JUST MOPPED THE FLOOR, DON'T STEP ON IT! YOU'RE BREATHING MY AIR! UGH, I HATE PEOPLE!"

Ignoring Lewbert's friendly comments, Freddie walked past the irritated doorman and out of the building, before hopping into the cab backseat. And soon, he was headed to the Seattle airport, watching as the city passed by around him through the taxi windows.

Freddie smiled to himself as it all really sunk in. In a little over an hour, he'd be on his way to Jacksonville, and soon, he'd finally see Sam again. That thought sounded pretty unreal, and even too good to be true, but it was, and Freddie knew it; it was like he could actually feel it was true.

And after thirty more minutes, which seemed to have dragged on for hours, he finally reached the Seattle airport.

**Jorge Puckett**

Jorge rang the doorbell next to the door right in front of him.

It was pretty late at night, and he had arrived in Jacksonville about two hours ago. He had gotten a taxi at the airport and headed straight to the hotel, where he left his luggage and showered, before hopping into another taxi and dictating the address Matthew had given him to the taxi driver. And that was how, fifteen minutes later, he found himself standing in the front porch of a medium-sized red house in Jacksonville, waiting for someone to answer the door. He had his right hand resting lightly on his belt, ready to pull out the gun loaded with wooden bullets at any second. It was night time, the most dangerous time to be out there in the open, since that was the time of the day vampires could wander around freely, not having to worry about being burnt by the sunlight.

Or at least that was what he thought anyway.

The front door of the house was suddenly pulled open and a 20-year-old young man came into view, standing in the doorway.

"Officer Pu- I mean, Jorge! I thought you weren't gonna show up anymore!" the man exclaimed jokingly, stepping aside, a clear sign for Jorge to walk inside, which he gladly did.

"My flight was delayed a bit, and I made a stop at the hotel I'm staying at," Jorge replied, walking past Matthew, who closed the door as soon as Jorge was inside.

Matthew replied with an acknowledging nod of his head, but he didn't comment on it.

And about ten minutes later, the two men were sitting on the living room couch, each one of them holding a mug filled with hot coffee.

"So… Do you have anything new to tell me?" Jorge asked Matthew after taking a sip of coffee from his mug.

"Yeah, actually, I have," Matthew replied, but made a short pause to take a sip of his own coffee, much to Jorge's impatience. "I've been able to track Tyler down, and I found out where he's living here in Jacksonville."

"Great, he won't be expecting me to know where he lives and to attack him there," Jorge said, feeling that he might actually succeed at his task of killing Tyler. He had been worried about not succeeding, because whenever he hunted vampires, he was accompanied by at least three of his men, all of them carrying stakes and guns loaded with wooden bullets and ready to act at any moment. But in this mission, he'd have to go alone. He didn't even want to bring Matthew along with him, since it would put the younger man into too much risk, even though Matthew had made it pretty clear that he was willing to go with him.

"Yeah, he probably won't," Matthew agreed, and then took another long sip from his mug, drinking its whole content down at once, before placing his empty mug on the coffee table right in front of the couch. "But there are a few things I need to show you before you attack."

"What kind of things?" Jorge asked curiously, frowning at Matthew, who suddenly stood up from the couch.

"I think it's best if you just follow me," Matthew replied, walking away from the couch and toward the hallway that led to the front door of the house.

Jorge hesitated for a moment, but he ended up standing up from the couch as well after resting the mug of coffee he had been holding onto the table and following Matthew, wondering what the things Matthew wanted to show him could be.

Jorge then watched as Matthew opened one of the doors in the hallway, which led to a small staircase. Even though Matthew turned on a small light bulb that hung from the low ceiling, the staircase was still poorly lit, so the two of them had to take really slow and careful steps while going down the staircase.

When they finally got to what Jorge guessed was the basement of the house, Matthew turned on another light bulb, and Jorge had to blink a few times to make sure his eyes weren't tricking him when he examined the room he found himself standing in.

The first thing he noticed were the crossbows hanging on the farthest wall of the room. Then, his eyes lay upon the table right below the weapons, where there were several wooden stakes of various sizes. And along with the stakes, there were several other items Jorge wasn't able to identify.

But what really caught his attention was something placed right in the center of the room. There was a big table there, but what caught Jorge's attention wasn't the piece of furniture itself, but what lay on it. There were plants growing in several vases placed on the table, with very strong lights projected over them, simulating the warmth of sunlight. The plants looked like flowers with really long stems, and were of a lilac color on their tips.

"Vervain," Jorge whispered, amazed by the sight. The herb was extremely toxic to vampires, being able to burn their skin if they touched it and to make them grow weak and even be knocked unconscious if injected in them or ingested. And also, if a human drank it or wore it in some kind of jewelry, they'd be protected against mind compulsion. He had been aware that vervain was a pretty rare plant, so he had never had access to it.

"Yes," Matthew replied. "I traveled to Virginia a few months ago and brought a few seeds with me. I've been cultivating them since then just for safety," he explained.

"So you've been drinking vervain?" Jorge asked, finally making himself tear his eyes away from the growing plants right in front of him.

"Uh… No, no, I've been wearing it," Matthew said, holding up his wrist to show Jorge the silver bracelet he was wearing.

"Isn't drinking it safer than wearing it? I mean, that could be yanked out or something, and you'd be protected against being bitten too," Jorge asked, and Matthew looked away abruptly, hesitating a bit before answering.

"I just prefer wearing it, that's all," Matthew explained after a few seconds, but the boy's hesitation intrigued Jorge a bit. He felt as if there was something Matthew didn't want him to know, but he decided not to say anything about it, or at least not right now.

"Well, anyway, that's not the only thing I want to show you," Matthew went on when he realized that Jorge wouldn't say anything else, and then gestured to the table right in front of the crossbows. "Correct me if I'm wrong," Matthew started. "The weapons you use against vampires are guns loaded with wooden bullets and stakes made of wood, right?"

"Yeah..." Jorge replied, frowning slightly in confusion at Matthew's question.

"Well, a friend of my dad's designed a few other weapons, and my dad gave me a few drafts. So a while before I started tracking Tyler down, I built them all, just for safety as well." Jorge raised his eyebrows at that, but he remained quiet.

"Those crossbows are designed to shoot wooden stakes instead of arrows." Matthew pointed at the black weapons hanging on the wall. "They're automatic. You just have to place the stake into the metal support, aim and pull the trigger. They can be pretty effective if the vampire you're aiming at is caught off guard, but if not, then they're usually able to grab the stake in the air before it hits them."

Matthew then grabbed something that looked like a glove from the table and held it up for Jorge to see. It had some kind of metal structure on the back of it, but Jorge couldn't identify what it was made for. Noticing Jorge's curiosity, Matthew went on with his explanation after putting on the glove.

"This thing here," he started, pointing at the metal structure on the back of his hand. "Is where you put these," he said as he picked up one of the smaller stakes from the table, before carefully placing two of those into the perfectly sized holes in the metal structure. "The metal structure is sensible to pressure, so if you manage to punch a vampire anywhere with enough strength to activate this mechanism, these stakes will be projected forward with enough strength to cut through their skin and wound them."

Jorge examined the glove Matthew was wearing, amazed by what he had just heard. He could remember several situations in which that could have been extremely useful, and he could also imagine himself using that against Tyler and catching the vampire off guard, since he couldn't expect Jorge to use something like that against him.

"Another important item is this one," Matthew went on after he had taken the glove off and picked up another object from the table. It looked like some kind of tube made of glass, but it had a needle on one of its ends. "This is a vervain dart. You can use it to inject vervain in a vampire, but you have to catch them off guard to do it."

Jorge nodded at that. He didn't think he'd actually have a chance to use that one, only if he managed to knock Tyler down before vervaining him, but since his main objective wasn't to weaken Tyler, but to actually stake him, he didn't see much use for that kind of thing in his upcoming mission.

"Or you can use this to shoot the smaller darts," Matthew continued, holding up a gun, which wasn't like anything Jorge had ever seen before. Matthew then grabbed one of the smaller vervain darts from the table and loaded the gun with them. "You can shoot multiple darts before reloading, so it's a lot easier to sedate a vampire with this than with the other dart." He made a short pause as he laid the gun back onto the table.

"And last but not least," Matthew went on as he picked up another object from the table, which Jorge couldn't define at all. "This is a vervain grenade. You just have to pull the pin out and throw it. It will explode and cover your target in vervain. It will probably catch any vampire by surprise, so it might be pretty useful against Tyler."

Jorge nodded in response, examining the object in Matthew's hands. Now that he knew what it was, it actually looked like a small grenade, but it was transparent, which let him actually see the light greenish liquid in its interior.

"Thank you for helping me, Matthew. If I really do succeed in this, it will be because of you," Jorge said after a brief moment of silence.

"Anytime," Matthew replied, and made a small pause as he placed the grenade back on the table. "So, uh… Can I ask you something?"

"Yeah, sure," Jorge replied.

"Do you plan on tracking down… your daughters as well?" Matthew was clearly trying to avoid Jorge's gaze.

Jorge hesitated before answering. The possibility of meeting Sam and Melanie again and finally being able to know if they were fine was extremely appealing to him, but that didn't mean he wasn't extremely nervous about it. Back in Seattle, he had actually considered looking for them, but the fear and nervousness soon began to crawl its way into him. He had thought about it during the whole plane ride to Jacksonville, and he still didn't feel better about it.

"No, I'd rather not," he replied finally. "If I meet them again, it will be out of luck. I didn't come here to look for them in the first place anyway."

"You're afraid of meeting them again, aren't you?" Matthew asked, as if he could read Jorge's thoughts.

"Well… yeah, kind of. I just… I just don't know how I should act, what I should say… And I can't simply ignore what they are. They're not even human anymore," he explained.

"You're right, they're not. But that doesn't mean they're not the same anymore. They're still your daughters," Matthew said, and Jorge frowned at him.

"How can you know that?" Jorge asked, and the younger man simply shrugged.

"I just do," Matthew replied.

Silence took over them for a moment, until Matthew suddenly cleared his throat and started talking about which of all those weapons he thought would be useful for Jorge when he went after Tyler. But as Jorge listened to everything Matthew said, he found himself unable to push one single thought away; one that deeply intrigued and worried him.

There was something Matthew wasn't telling him, but he had no idea what it could be.

**Freddie Benson**

Freddie took a deep breath, before holding out his hand and ringing the doorbell.

He was standing right in front of his cousin's apartment door, his bag on the floor by his side as he waited patiently for someone to answer the door.

The knowledge that maybe he was in the same city as Sam hadn't left his mind since the moment his flight arrived at the Jacksonville airport, a thought that made him grow extremely anxious on the inside as the perspective of seeing her again actually sunk in.

He had honestly never felt so anxious in his whole life.

It didn't take over than ten seconds for the front door to be yanked open, and before Freddie could even process what was going on, he was suddenly pulled into a tight bear hug.

"Freddie! Oh my god, look at you!" Maggie exclaimed when she pulled away from him, smiling as she carefully examined his face. "You were like, ten or something the last time I saw you in person!"

"Twelve," he corrected her, smiling at her enthusiasm. He had forgotten how smiley and naturally happy his cousin was.

"Well, come on in!" she rushed him inside her apartment. She offered to carry his bag, saying that he was the guest and that as the host, she'd be glad to do it, but he refused to let her do it.

Maggie then showed Freddie the guest room, which was where he'd be staying for the next couple of days, and then they made a brief tour around the apartment, since Freddie had never been there before. The last time he had visited her, she was only thirteen years old and lived with her parents in a house a few blocks away from there.

When Maggie was done giving him directions and dictating a few rules, both of them walked back to the living room and sat down on the couch for what Maggie called 'cousin-bonding time'. When they were little, they were pretty much best friends, but then Maggie's father got transferred to Jacksonville and since then they had barely seen each other.

"So you used to watch iCarly?" Freddie asked Maggie after about an hour of catching up with each other's lives.

"Yeah, your mom told my mom about it, and I watched it once. Since then, I didn't miss one single broadcast," she said, smiling. "It's a pity you had to stop doing it. You guys said that there would be a new video up in the website from time to time, but there was none."

Freddie hesitated a moment before answering. Before going to college, the trio had indeed decided to post a new video once in a while on the iCarly website, just so they wouldn't have the bitter feeling that their web show was actually over and was something from the past. But after Sam's so called death, Freddie and Carly decided not to do it anymore.

It was a hard decision to make, but they had decided against telling the viewers about Sam's death. They knew that the fans deserved to know the truth, since they had been part of the trio's life for over six years, but Carly and Freddie had preferred not to let the fans take Carly, Freddie, Spencer, Gibby and everyone else's suffering as their own.

Keeping Sam's death a secret had been one of the two reasons they had for not posting any videos or new blog entries on the website, or anything new for that matter. If they started posting new things on the site, the fans would eventually notice Sam's absence, which would soon lead to someone finding out the truth and spreading it across the whole internet and, in consequence, the whole world.

The other reason was pretty obvious. iCarly just wasn't the same without Sam, and both Carly and Freddie didn't feel like doing anything related to iCarly anymore. They had practically abandoned the website, except for a few eventual visits to check the new comments, which always remained without any kind of reply.

"Well, college has been keeping us all pretty busy," Freddie finally said. He felt bad about lying to his cousin, and he knew that if he told her the truth and asked her not to tell anyone about it, she would keep his secret, but he somehow thought it was better not to tell her anything, considering that it couldn't actually be called truth anymore. At least not in his mind anyway.

"Oh, well, I can't say I don't get it. Just wait, it gets worse each semester that passes," she said. "So… What brings you to Jacksonville? You didn't really explain it over the phone," Maggie asked after a short silent pause in their conversation.

"Oh, uh… Visiting a friend I haven't seen in a long while," Freddie answered after thinking for a brief moment. He silently hoped that Maggie wouldn't ask for further information, since he didn't feel like sharing his real reasons to be in Jacksonville with her, and he'd have to either give her pretty vague answers or make up some kind of story to satiate her curiosity.

"Must be some really important friend to bring you all the way across the country, aren't I right?" Maggie asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Trust me, she is," Freddie replied without thinking, and a knowing smirk formed on his cousin's lips.

"Uhhh, Freddie's got a girlfriend," she said teasingly, and Freddie couldn't stop himself from rolling his eyes at her.

"She's not my girlfriend," he told her, but the smirk refused to leave her features.

"Do you mean that like 'we're just friends' or like 'we're not dating yet'?" Maggie asked, and the shy smile that broke out on Freddie's lips answered the question for her, but before she could say anything else, the phone rang.

Maggie lazily stood up from the couch and walked over to the table under the mirror where the phone was placed, before finally answering it.

"Hello?" Maggie spoke into the phone, and Freddie looked away, examining his surroundings more carefully, but he couldn't help but pay attention to what his cousin was saying when she exclaimed 'Oh my god, no way!' excitedly all of a sudden.

Freddie watched Maggie curiously as she chatted with whoever was on the other end of the phone line, seeming to have gotten so happy all of a sudden that she managed to make Freddie grow curious to know what the conversation was about. And after what Freddie guessed had been over fifteen minutes, Maggie finally hung up. Freddie, however, didn't have the chance to ask her why she was suddenly so happy.

"Freddie, you don't have anything to do tomorrow night, right?" Maggie asked him, smiling widely, and Freddie frowned at her excitement.

"No…" He trailed off, eyeing his cousin curiously.

"Well, now you have!" she said.

"What?"

"You know that the owner of Pear has a huge mansion here in Jacksonville, right?" she asked him excitedly.

"Yeah…" Freddie still didn't know where that conversation was headed.

"And you know that his son's 18th birthday is tomorrow, right?" Maggie asked, still just as excited as she had been when she hung up.

"No, but I do now…" Freddie said, a hint of amusement clear in his voice. "Where is this conversation going?"

"Well, he's throwing a party to celebrate his son's birthday! Tomorrow night! A friend of mine just called to invite me, and he said that I could bring as many people as I wanted, because the house is truly _huge_!" She seemed to be as happy as a little kid on Christmas morning seconds before opening up her presents.

"Meg, I don't know, I don't really feel like going to a party…" Freddie began to protest, hoping that his cousin had somehow grown less stubborn over the years they had spent apart, but he soon found out that his hopes had been in vain.

"Fredward Karl Benson, you were just invited to a party in a mansion that belongs to one of the richest people alive, and you're honestly thinking about turning down the invitation?" Maggie asked incredulously.

"It's just that…" Freddie found himself unable to put his thoughts into words. What was actually going through his head was that he didn't want to waste his time at some kind of huge party instead of finding a way to track Sam down, which was why he had gone to Jacksonville in the first place, but he couldn't just tell Maggie that.

Maggie then changed her way of trying to make Freddie change his mind, and instead of trying to convince him with words, she decided to do it by giving him her best puppy dog look. "You're really gonna make me go to the party all by myself?"

Freddie sighed in defeat.

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad…

"Fine, I'll go with you," he gave in, and Maggie instantly started beaming.

"Yay! We can go dress shopping for me and tux shopping for you tomorrow afternoon! This is gonna be so much fun! Imagine, we'll…" Maggie started going on and on about how awesome the party would be, the dress she wanted to buy and some other stuff Freddie couldn't really make himself pay attention to.

Freddie mentally slapped himself for agreeing to go with her, but even if he tried to back down now, Maggie would somehow manage to drag him there, even if she had to knock him unconscious so when he woke up again, they were already at the party. He knew Maggie well enough to know that she was capable of pretty much anything, which was one of the reasons why he liked her so much. She reminded him of Sam a lot in that department.

Freddie sighed once again, thinking about everything he'd have to go through the next day, but there wasn't anything he could do to change that.

But what he didn't know was that the party might end up being worth going to after all.

**Sam Puckett**

Sam sighed in relief when she left her office that day, finally free to go home.

She had had to stay working until late that night, but it had been time well invested, since with all the work she and Jessica had managed to do that day, there were very few things to be done the next day and the other, which meant that she'd be able to leave work early for winter break.

But that wasn't exactly the reason why she was so happy to be out from work.

Working until later than she usually did had messed up her feeding schedule, which could have pretty terrible consequences. The last time she had fed had been over six hours ago, which was a lot longer than she usually went without blood, and with the hunger, came a pretty irritable Sam, which wasn't pleasant to be around in any way, let alone to work with.

Poor Jessica.

Her poor co-worker had to put up with her horrible mood for over three hours. When she questioned Sam about the sudden change in her mood, Sam simply told her that hadn't slept well the night before, and that being tired usually made her pretty unstable.

Sam was glad that she had actually managed to last so long without taking a bite of one of the hundreds of humans working in that building, but it hadn't been easy. At least she had a lot more control over her vampire instincts than she had one year ago when she turned.

_But well, maybe it wouldn't be so bad if I just had a quick snack before going home, _Sam thought as she walked past one of the interns of the company, who couldn't work there for over a week, since she looked pretty lost. _The hallway is deserted, the majority of the offices are empty and there's barely anyone left in the building. Who the hell would notice it?_

Sam shook her head vigorously in an effort to try to get rid of those thoughts, finally being able to restore her grip on her sanity as the petit brunette girl vanished from sight by rounding the corner in the end of the hallway. It was surprising how incoherent her thoughts became whenever she was hungry.

Sam paused. She was suddenly anxious, and she felt as if she was being watched. She looked around curiously, but there was no one in sight. She decided to simply shrug it off and resumed walking, thinking that she was probably just be paranoid or something, when she had that feeling again, and that made her be sure that there was someone following her.

She concentrated herself on the sounds around her, hoping to hear something that might help her find out who was following her, but before she could even begin to process what she had heard, a blurry figure suddenly came into view, coming in her direction, probably trying to catch her off guard.

But even though the figure was extremely fast, she was faster, and in no more than three seconds she already had the figure pinned against the wall, holding them by their throat.

"Damn it! I guess I'll never manage to sneak up on you!" Kyle said, annoyed, and Sam simply chuckled as she let go of him.

Kyle had been Ryan's best friend for the past three years, and he and Sam ended up getting along extremely well. He had a personality pretty similar to hers, so that must be the reason why they had become such great friends in such a short period of time.

He had turned into a vampire sixteen years ago, at the age of nineteen, which made him sixteen years older than Sam, and even though he was stronger than her, she was still faster than him, and she never got tired of proving that to him. It had sort of become a game for them, in which Kyle tried to catch her off guard in several different situations, but he had failed terribly every single time he had tried doing it so far.

"You say that every time, but you don't seem willing to give up," Sam told him, smirking.

"Hell no! I'm telling you, one day I will surprise you!" Kyle told her, and Sam couldn't stop herself from rolling her eyes at him.

"Yeah, and one day, I'll become a vegetarian," she replied sarcastically. "Anyway, what the hell are you doing here?"

"What? Can't I simply walk by to see how you're doing?" he asked, and Sam simply gave him a 'yeah, right' look. "Fine, fine, you win. I came here to talk to Melanie about something, and then I thought I'd try to scare you again," he told her, shrugging lightly. "But anyway, I already spoke to Melanie today, and I'm sure she'll talk to you about it later, but I think I'll tell you now anyway."

"Tell me what?" Sam asked, suddenly curious.

"You know who Steven Farx is, right?" Kyle asked.

"The guy who owns Pear?"

"Yep, that's the one. Now, guess who's throwing a huge party to celebrate his son's eighteenth birthday right here in Jacksonville?" he asked, smiling.

"Oh my god, are you serious?" Sam asked, not even bothering to hide her sudden excitement.

"Yeah, tomorrow night! And I happen to know a friend of a friend of his daughter-in-law's cousin, and she said that I could invite as many people as I wanted! So you, your sister, your brother and Katelyn are all going, and that's an order," he said, smiling at her.

"Oh, you bet we will!" Sam said, smiling back at him. "But wait, did she really say that you could invite as many people as you wanted?"

"Yes..."

"And how many people have you invited so far?" she asked.

"Uh... Not many..." he said, and Sam raised an eyebrow at him. "Thirty-five people are not that many!" Kyle said defensively, and Sam simply rolled her eyes and shook her head at him, laughing lightly.

Sam didn't know why, but for some reason, she had a feeling that something big would happen the next day.

And she couldn't even begin to imagine why.

* * *

**Author's Note: I wonder what will happen at that party... Fights? Arguments? Murders? Kisses? Anything is possible ;D**

**Thank you so much for reading! =)**

**I love reviews ;)**

**xxiCarlyFanxx**


	9. Chapter 9: Crossing Paths

**Disclaimer: I don't own iCarly or The Vampire Diaries!**

**Enjoy! ;)**

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Darkness Times

Chapter 9: Crossing Paths

**Jorge Puckett**

Jorge stared up at the house right across the street.

It had taken him a pretty long time, but he had somehow managed to convince Matthew that he should do this alone, since Jorge didn't want the young man to go through something so dangerous because of him. Even though Matthew was already twenty years old, he was still considerably young, and he had probably never even seen a vampire in person, let alone tried to kill one. And thanks to his six years of hunting those creatures down, Jorge knew that someone as inexperienced as Matthew would do the complete opposite of helping, since Jorge would have to look out for the two of them.

It was already late evening, but sunlight still covered the surroundings, which would surely work on his favor, since that would make it impossible for Tyler to leave the house without being burnt to a pile of ashes.

But even though Matthew wasn't actually there with him, that didn't mean that the young man would have no part in Jorge's plan.

Matthew had lent Jorge several of his vampire hunting weapons, which would certainly be very useful later on. He had two guns loaded with wooden bullets, two vervain grenades, the special glove with two small wooden stakes attached to it and, of course, three normal sized wooden stakes.

Jorge sighed, sending another glance toward the house. It looked like an ordinary house - one that anyone could live in. The neighbors could never even imagine that living in there, just a few steps away from their own homes, was one of the most dangerous creatures in the world; a murderer with no remorse.

_Well, it's now or never__, _Jorge thought to himself, finally getting out of the car and hesitantly crossing the street, trying to calm himself down as he thought about what he was about to do.

**Sam Puckett**

Sam stared ahead at the magnificent mansion right before her eyes, completely amazed by the sight.

That place was completely huge, and also beautiful, but she knew that she shouldn't have expected any less. The host of the party was the owner of Pear, so how could he live in an any less amazing and splendorous house? But the fact that the mansion that stood right before her was only one of the five he had all over the country didn't slip her mind.

Sam looked to her right side, where her sister was also eyeing the mansion with what she guessed was an identical look to the one she had had on her face just a few seconds ago, and the other twin seemed to be just as impressed with the beauty and size of the mansion as she was.

"This place is huge," Melanie breathed out as the two of them calmly made their way toward the mansion.

"I know," Sam agreed, letting her eyes wander over what must be over five hundred cars, some of which so expensive that Sam was afraid of even getting close to them. The cars were parked all around the huge front garden, which had been turned into some kind of parking lot.

The Puckett twins walked toward the big flight of marble stairs that led to the main entrance of the mansion. When they got to the front door, however, they paused briefly, eyeing the young man wearing a tux that stood by the door, welcoming all the guests.

Kyle had told them that both Mr. Farx's sons themselves would be taking turns by the front door to welcome the guests, so they shouldn't worry about the invitation to get inside the house. Sam and Melanie exchanged a brief look before they resumed walking, finally reaching the big double doors that led to the inside the mansion.

"Good evening, lovely ladies," the young man said, eyeing the two girls carefully, clearly pleased with what he was seeing. But it wasn't really his fault; the two looked truly gorgeous.

Sam was wearing a navy blue strapless dress. The top of the dress was draped, and just below her chest, a black ribbon contrasted with the blue fabric of the dress. The upper part of the dress hugged her body perfectly, but when it got to her waist, the dress fell in a ruffled blue cascade until just above her knees. She was wearing deep blue eyeshadow on her eyes and black eyeliner, which, combined with the dark shade of blue of her dress, intensified her crystal blue eyes. Her hair was even curlier than usual, and it fell in a cascade over her shoulders and down her back, reaching the top of her dress. She was wearing dark blue closed toe high heels, which matched perfectly with the color of her dress.

Melanie's dress was slightly different from her sister's. Her strapless dress was about the same length as Sam's, but unlike her sister's dress, it was a bright shade of red. Her dress wasn't draped, but over the red ribbon right below her chest was a shiny silver brooch. Her dress was ruffled as well, beginning in her waist until just above her knees, but it wasn't as ruffled as Sam's. Her light silver eyeshadow and black eyeliner also intensified the color of her eyes. She had decided to keep her hair straight in an effort to at least try to make her and her sister look slightly different from each other. Her open toe high heels weren't as high as Sam's, and were a dark shade of red.

The two of them looked completely breathtaking, so it was no surprise that the young man right in front of them was staring at them with such hungry eyes, probably planning to try to meet them later during the party.

He reached out to hold Melanie's hand, before bending forward slightly and planting a kiss on the back of her hand. He did the same with Sam, before stepping back and gestured for the two of them to go inside.

"Welcome to the Farx Mansion. Come on inside and enjoy the night," he told the two girls with a bright smile.

Sam and Melanie simultaneously took a step forward, and when they their feet landed on the other side of the doorway without any problems, they took another step and finally found themselves inside the mansion.

The twins shared another look, this time with a hint of a smile, before starting to make their way to the main hall, where the party was already happening, and where they were supposed to meet Ryan, Katelyn and Kyle.

**Jorge Puckett**

The back door was easier to open than Jorge had expected it to be.

Thanks to his job as a cop, he had learned how to break into a house without making a single sound, which was exactly what he had just done, but he knew that being silent was completely useless in his current situation. The house was breaking into belonged to a vampire, who could even hear the sound of his heartbeat if he wanted to, so what was the point of trying to go unnoticed? Trying to surprise a vampire was something pretty much impossible to be done, at least for a human, so there was no point in trying to catch Tyler off guard. Jorge was aware of that, so he would do the complete opposite of that. He'd try to get Tyler's attention and let the vampire come to him, instead of the other way around.

He made his way out of the kitchen and into the living room with his gun pointed forward, not bothering to be silent anymore and ready to fire at any moment.

The silence inside the house was so heavy it would make anyone feel nervous. Anyone inexperienced at vampire hunting would have thought that maybe Tyler wasn't home at the moment, since there was no sign of anyone in the house, but Jorge knew just how sneaky and quiet vampires could be, especially when they felt threatened, so he didn't let his guard down for even a single second.

And he was proven right for doing that after about two excruciating minutes had gone by, when he suddenly heard a quick movement on his left. He quickly looked in that direction as soon as the movement happened, his aiming following his gaze, but he saw nothing there. And that was when he knew it was time to put his plan into action.

Jorge moved one of his hands down, so now he was holding his gun with only one hand, and stuffed his hand on the inside of his jacket, his skin coming in contact with a cold object.

He remained frozen that way for about thirty seconds, until he heard the movement again, but this time, he actually managed to catch a glimpse of a blurry figure rounding him for a second.

He tried to steady his breathing, telling himself over and over again that he could do this, because he knew that if he failed, he'd die.

A chill suddenly went down his spine, and it was like he actually felt that Tyler was going to attack him, so he quickly pulled the cold object he had been holding inside his jacket out and threw it in the air just in time to see a blurry figure coming toward him once again and grabbing his shoulders forcefully, ready to kill him.

The vervain grenade Jorge had tossed into the air exploded right above their heads, and the vampire right in front of Jorge screamed in agony when the liquid poured over the two of them. Jorge was able to catch a brief glimpse of Tyler's burnt skin before he fell to the floor, still screaming.

Jorge lost no time. He knew that being burnt by vervain wouldn't keep Tyler down for even a minute, so he quickly shot the vampire twice; once in the leg and then in his shoulder, not having to worry about the neighbors hearing the gun going off, since it had a silenciator.

Tyler gritted his teeth tightly together to prevent himself from screaming even louder. The vampire's skin was already healing from the vervain, but Jorge knew that as long as the wooden bullets were still under Tyler's skin, he wouldn't be able to attack.

"What the hell, man?" Tyler yelled, clearly in pain because of the wooden bullets.

"I assume you don't recognize me," Jorge said, and in that moment, Tyler seemed to have recognized his voice.

"Oh, you've gotta be kidding me," Tyler said when he finally realized who the man standing just a few steps away from him was. "So what's your plan? You came here to kill me to avenge your two dead daughters?"

"Yeah, something around those lines," Jorge admitted, his voice earning an incredibly cool tone. "But I also want some answers."

"And you seriously expect me to give you any answer?" Tyler asked, and Jorge pulled the trigger once more, since the pain seemed to have worn off a bit. Tyler screamed in pain once again when the bullet hit a spot just above his knee.

"You answer me, you don't get shot," Jorge said simply, his face completely emotionless.

"Screw you," Tyler managed to say through his gritted teeth, but Jorge ignored him.

"Now, tell me. Why did you want revenge on me? Why did you turn Sam and Melanie into vampires?" Jorge asked the question that had been lingering in his mind for the past whole year.

Tyler didn't answer, and he didn't seem willing to do so anytime soon, so Jorge shot him once again, this time on his side.

"I can do this all night if I need to," Jorge said as he watched Tyler cover the spot where the bullet had just pierced his skin with his hand, as if trying to stop his blood from pouring out of the wound.

"You killed her," Tyler finally replied lowly through his gritted teeth, just as loud as a whisper.

"What?" Jorge asked in response.

"You killed her," Tyler repeated, louder this time, but Jorge still didn't know what he meant by that.

"Who?"

"Trianna," Tyler answered, and Jorge frowned in confusion. "You didn't even know her name, did you?" Tyler suddenly sounded angry.

Jorge didn't respond; he simply waited patiently for Tyler to continue, since he honestly had no idea what the vampire was talking about.

"Well, maybe this will refresh your memory," Tyler began. "August 21st, 2009. You and some of your little agents were on a mission to kill a vampire you had been tracking down for over a year. You somehow managed to catch her off guard, and you drove a stake right through her heart without any hesitation."

Jorge finally came to the realization that Tyler was talking about the vampire he had believed to have killed Ryan. "I thought she was the one who killed my son, but I'm assuming I was wrong."

"It's actually a pretty long story," Tyler said, as if that would quiet Jorge down.

Jorge noticed that Tyler didn't seem to be in as much pain as before, so he pulled the trigger once again to keep Tyler down. He didn't know if Tyler would be able to attack him even after being shot, but he didn't want to take any risks.

"It's not like I don't have time for it," Jorge said when Tyler's screaming in pain subsided.

Tyler didn't answer at first, which made Jorge think that the vampire wouldn't tell him anything. But he waited anyway, ready to shoot at any second if necessary. And finally, after what Jorge guessed had been over a minute, Tyler finally spoke again.

"My sister started to date someone about seven years ago. She had been trying to keep a distance from me because she was still mad at me for something I had done in the past, but I soon found out that she was dating a human. One of the few details I managed to get about her relationship with the mortal was that she was apparently in love with him.

"I didn't really care about who she was dating, but one night, she truly pissed me off. We had what was probably our biggest fight ever, and I got so angry with her that the only thing that mattered to me was payback, so I did the only thing I could think of at the moment that was sure to piss her off as well." Tyler made a short pause. "I killed her little boyfriend," he finally said.

Jorge had no idea where Tyler wanted to get with that story, but he didn't interrupt the vampire's speech; he simply stood there, listening.

"One night, I attacked him and the little group of friends he had with him, and Trianna, my girlfriend back then, went with me. We killed all four boys that night, but I was the one who killed Katelyn's boyfriend, Ryan."

Jorge was frozen for a moment. Ryan had been dating a vampire back in 2007, and he had managed to keep it a secret from his family? How could he have done that? Why would he have done something like that? But… maybe he didn't even know she was a vampire in the first place.

"Ryan wouldn't have dated a vampire; he wasn't crazy," Jorge voiced his thoughts, shaking his head in disbelief.

Tyler seemed pretty amused by that. "Oh, trust me, he did," Tyler said. "I met him once. He knew about me and Katelyn, that much was obvious." The vampire made a short pause. "Katelyn even gave him a vervain bracelet so he couldn't be compelled by a vampire after we met, probably because of me."

The idea of a human actually dating a vampire was so unbelievable that it took Jorge several seconds to even process it. Ryan had been dating a vampire six years ago. But how could he have been so stupid to do that? He should have imagined that getting involved with a vampire could have dangerous consequences, so why would he risk it?

Jorge faintly remembered Katelyn. He had only seen her once, but that was already enough for him to have a mental image of her. If he wasn't mistaken, she had black hair and green eyes, but he couldn't bring himself to remember more.

He could have never imagined that girl was a vampire, and right now, he found himself nearly hating her, for it was her fault Ryan was killed.

"So you're saying that you killed my son and three other people because you wanted to piss your sister off?" Jorge asked, still pretty surprised by how cold vampire logic could be. It was shocking how insignificant vampires thought human life was.

"Yeah, but it didn't really work the way I had planned," Tyler admitted. "My sister absolutely hates me since then and I didn't really get rid of the boy."

"You killed him," Jorge said, frowning. "How did you not get rid of him?"

Tyler raised his eyebrows in response, as if finally realizing something. "You don't know about it, do you?" he asked, and Jorge simply shook his head in response. "Well, it seems that you actually need more answers than you think, but I'm not the one who will give them to you."

And without any kind of warning, Tyler got up from the floor in a blur and the next thing Jorge knew was that his gun had been slapped out of his hand and was now lying on the floor on the other side of the room, and that Tyler had grabbed him by the throat, as if trying to suffocate him, just with not as much strength, and pushed Jorge against a wall.

Jorge mentally cursed for letting himself be fooled so easily. Tyler wouldn't have told him so much if he hadn't had something in mind. He had only said so much about his reasons for killing Ryan to somehow distract Jorge for a while just so he could heal enough to make a move and turn the tables. Now Jorge's life was in his hands, not the other way around.

"Don't worry, I'm not gonna kill you; at least not right now. I'm late for something anyway, and now I'm gonna have to change, or else I'm pretty sure people will stare if I show up with so many blood stains on me, so I wouldn't even have time to make your death as slow and painful as I want to. I'll let you live for now, but if you ever try to pull any other stunt like the one you pulled tonight, I'll make sure you won't live to see another day," Tyler threatened him. "And by the way, I'm not gonna be the only vampire you know at the Farx's mansion tonight, if you get what I mean."

Jorge had no time to even process what Tyler had said, since everything suddenly became black.

**Freddie Benson**

Freddie tried to remember why he had agreed to go to that party with Maggie.

Maybe he should be thrilled about it; he was at what would probably be the most commented party of the month, maybe even the year, but he just wasn't in the mood for partying. He had never actually liked to go to any kind of party; he only attended to some in high school because Carly and Sam practically dragged him to the few ones he had been invited to. And this one wasn't much different, considering that Maggie had to do pretty much the same thing to get him to go.

"Oh, hey, Kyle!" Maggie exclaimed suddenly, grabbing Freddie's wrist and practically dragging him through the crowd of people. It was hard to believe how many people there were in that place.

"Maggie! You came!" a young man about the same age as Freddie said in response, smiling at the brown-haired woman.

"Of course I came! How could I miss a party like this?" Maggie asked, smiling brightly at him. It was then that Kyle finally noticed Freddie standing awkwardly right next to Maggie. "Kyle, this is my cousin Freddie. Freddie, this is my friend Kyle." She gestured back and forth between the two men as she introduced them.

Kyle held out his hand, which Freddie grabbed and shook as the two exchanged greetings.

The three of them chatted for a while, and Freddie was finally beginning to feel a bit more relaxed as time passed, probably because the party mood going around was starting to rub off on him. Maybe that night would end up being quite enjoyable after all.

"So, where's your girlfriend?" Maggie asked Kyle, who rolled his eyes at her question.

"She's not my girlfriend," he told her, and Freddie could tell that he heard that question very often.

"Right," Maggie said, winking at him, and he simply shook his head at her, before letting his eyes scan the crowd around them. And a second later, Kyle's eyes suddenly lit up.

"Speak of the devil," Kyle said lowly, smiling lightly. "Hey, Mel!" he called out.

Freddie followed his gaze, and as soon as his eyes found the person whom Kyle had just caught the attention of, his heart nearly skipped a beat.

He found himself watching as a blonde headed young woman made her way toward their small group, her sparkling blue eyes reminding Freddie of the ones he missed so dearly. But unlike what he was used to, her hair wasn't a wild mess of blonde curls. Her hair was straight, and even if Kyle hadn't said her name out loud, Freddie would have still been able to tell that she wasn't the girl whom he had fallen in love with and still loved, despite all the time that had passed.

He'd still be able to tell that standing right in front of him was Sam's twin sister, Melanie.

**Melanie Puckett**

Melanie smiled as she made her way toward Kyle.

She couldn't help but stare at him for a moment. It never failed to amaze her just how good-looking he was. Sam had always teased her about that, saying that she knew Melanie was interested in Kyle, and even though Melanie always denied it, assuring her sister that they were just friends and nothing beyond that, deep down she knew that Sam was right.

She just liked to keep that to herself, since she doubted Kyle could ever feel something for her in return, and she didn't want to have to live with the teasing that would surely come if Kyle ever found out about it.

"Hey, blondie," Kyle greeted Melanie when she reached him. "I'm glad to see you came." She smiled at Kyle, and it was just then that she noticed there were some other people talking to him - a man and a woman. She soon recognized the woman as a friend of Kyle's, but even though the man seemed oddly familiar to her, she couldn't tell who he was for sure.

"How could I not?" Melanie replied, before turning her attention to the two people she assumed were a couple. "You're… Margaret, right?" Melanie asked, looking at the dark-haired woman.

"Call me Maggie," the woman answered. "It's Melanie, right?"

"Yep," Melanie said, and then turned her attention to the young man, who was staring at her with an expression she couldn't entirely define. Anger? Curiosity? Confusion? It looked like a mixture of those, which confused her greatly. "Have we met before? Because you look extremely familiar," she told him, deciding to ignore the way he was looking at her.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure we have." He made a short pause, and Melanie was taken aback by his tone of voice, which was a bit too cold for her liking. "I'm Freddie. Freddie Benson."

The moment she heard that name, Melanie froze, suddenly losing her ability to speak as she eyed the man carefully, hoping that she hadn't heard him right, or at least that there could be another Freddie Benson in that country. But as the memories from her last visit to Seattle about five years ago came back rushing into her mind and she compared the mental image she had of her sister's male best friend and the young man standing right in front of her, she realized that there was no way to deny the obvious - they were the same person. Of course, he looked pretty different; it was impossible for him not to, since he was five years older now, but there were no doubts in her mind that there, standing right in front of her was Fredward Benson, the technical producer of iCarly and one of the people who were supposed to be on the other side of the country and think that both she and her sister were dead, and had been so for the past whole year.

"Freddie?" Melanie breathed out, her eyes wide with shock. "What are you…?" she started, but immediately stopped herself when she realized that Kyle and Maggie were watching them curiously.

"Uh… Am I missing something here?" Kyle asked, his eyes darting back and forth between Melanie and Freddie.

"Kyle, why don't you go show Maggie around the mansion?" Melanie asked, hoping that Kyle would get the hint and get the woman out of there so she could talk to Freddie alone. She couldn't know if Freddie knew about her and her sister being vampires, but as she had no way of knowing if he really knew the truth, she didn't want to risk more people finding out about it if revealed it in front of the woman who was probably his relative, considering that they had the same last name.

Fortunately, Kyle seemed to have taken the hint, but not without giving Melanie a quick questioning look, clearly telling her that she'd have to explain it later to him.

"Yeah, Meg, I'm sure you'll love this place. C'mon, I'll show you around," Kyle said, smiling and hoping that she wouldn't resist much. Maggie hesitated for a moment, as if considering if she really should just abandon Freddie there, but she soon seemed to change her mind.

"I'd love that," she said, smiling at Kyle.

Melanie regretted sending Kyle away with Maggie as soon as she found herself watching as the two walked away through the crowd, a sight that gave her an unfamiliar feeling in the pit of her stomach, and she suddenly felt like jumping on that girl right then and there and tearing her throat open.

Trying to push those thoughts aside, Melanie moved her gaze back to the dark-haired man standing right in front of her, suddenly remembering that she had something more important than a sudden jealous attack to deal with at the moment.

"What are you doing here?" Melanie asked, not finding any other way to voice her thoughts.

"Well, I was dragged to a party by my cousin and suddenly run into my best friend's twin sister, whom I hadn't seen in over five years, and also, who, along with her sister, had been supposedly dead for the past whole year," he said, crossing his arms over his chest. His tone was cold and accusing, which made Melanie hesitate for a brief moment before responding.

"Freddie, listen… I know that you might be confused and everything, but-" Melanie started, but Freddie suddenly cut her off.

"Confused? Well, that's an understatement." Freddie made a short pause as he let his gaze wander over the crowd that surrounded them. "Is she here?" he asked suddenly, and there was no need for him to specify who he was talking about.

Melanie hesitated for a short moment before answering. "Yes," she finally said, her voice low.

Freddie was silent for a moment, and Melanie wondered what was going through his head. She couldn't know if he knew the truth about her and Sam, but she suddenly found herself unable to figure out a way to find out. She couldn't simply ask him about it, especially not in a place full of people that could end up overhearing their conversation by accident.

"Can you tell her that I want to talk to her?" Freddie's voice suddenly brought Melanie back to reality as he looked back at her, and she quietly nodded in response, not knowing what to say. "I'll be outside," he told her, before he turning on his heel and walking away, vanishing from sight as soon as he entered the crowd of people.

Melanie was frozen on the spot where she stood for a moment. This was definitely not good. Freddie was there in Jacksonville, and he knew that Sam and Melanie weren't exactly dead, but she couldn't be sure if he knew what they were. And she could see it in his eyes that he was beyond pissed off, even though he probably didn't want to show it much. He probably didn't start an argument with Melanie in the middle of the party because he might be saving that for Sam, but she could see that he was struggling to hold his anger back.

Melanie forced herself to move as she darted forward and scanned her surroundings frantically.

She needed to find her sister, before Freddie did something stupid.

**Jorge Puckett**

Jorge woke up with a killer headache.

He sat up and looked around confusedly, trying to remember where he was and what he was doing there, but it took him a few seconds to gather his thoughts and make some sense out of them, and it was then that it all dawned upon him.

He was at Tyler's house, and the vampire was apparently gone.

And that was when the memories of his conversation with Tyler came back rushing into his mind.

The first thought that crossed his mind was that Tyler had actually been the one who had killed Ryan six years ago, which only amplified the hatred he felt toward the vampire, but that wasn't the only thing in his mind.

Tyler had said that he hadn't managed to get rid of Ryan, and there was only one meaning Jorge could find behind those words, even if it was extremely hard to let himself accept it.

Could Ryan really have turned and never even let his family know that he was still out there in the world? Could he really have lived in secret during over half a decade? And if he had really done that, why did he?

_For the same reason Sam and Melanie left, _Jorge suddenly realized. Sam and Melanie had left because they were afraid of how people might react to them turning into vampires, so the reason Ryan left must have been the same.

Even though everything pointed in that same direction, Jorge still wasn't entirely convinced that Ryan was also a vampire, since he didn't actually have any kind of solid proof to make himself believe it, but he knew that there was only one way to find out the truth.

Tyler had said that he wouldn't be the only vampire Jorge knew at the Farx's mansion that night, wherever that was, and that could only mean two things; that either the twins or Ryan would be there.

_Or maybe even the three of them, _Jorge found himself realizing, because it suddenly crossed his mind that if Ryan had really turned, then maybe he had come to Sam's rescue the night she turned, that being the reason as to why she even knew about Melanie turning as well in the first place, and why she seemed to understand what had happened to her so well in the letter she left behind.

Running his hand over the back of his head as he checked if he wasn't bleeding, since Tyler had apparently hit the back of his head against the wall to knock him out, Jorge stood up, and was glad to find no blood on the wall or on his skin.

He then left the house and went back to the car he had rented the day before, before fishing his phone out of his pocket and dialing Matthew's number. The phone rang twice before Matthew finally answered it.

"Jorge? Did anything go wrong?" Matthew asked on the other end of the phone line.

"Well, things didn't go exactly as I had planned, but I'm fine." He made a short pause. "Listen, do you happen to know where the Farx's mansion is?"

"Yeah, it's in the West side of the city. Why?" Matthew seemed confused by Jorge's apparently random question.

"I gotta go there now. Would you mind giving me the address?"

"Yeah, sure," Matthew replied. "Just hold on a sec."

And twenty minutes later, Jorge found himself staring up at the hugest mansion he had ever seen in his life, his heart racing at the thought of who he might run into when he went inside.

**Sam Puckett**

Sam drank down the contents of her cup all at once, which caused a burning feeling in her throat as she swallowed the alcohol down. It might seem weird, but since she became a vampire, drinking had become pretty much a daily habit, since it helped her control the cravings.

She sent a glance over to her side at Katelyn, who had just done the same thing as her, but with what Sam guessed was her sixth cup.

When she first met Katelyn, she hadn't been very fond of her brother's girlfriend, but as a few months passed, she started to actually like her and now they were what she could call pretty close friends. The two of them had pretty similar personalities, just like her and Kyle, which was probably why they got along so well.

"Sam!" a familiar voice broke Sam out of her trance and she looked around abruptly, scanning the crowd as she looked for the only person that voice could belong to.

"Oh god, finally!" Melanie exclaimed as soon as she reached the other two female vampires at the bar. "I looked for you everywhere!"

"Well, you should have guessed we were both here," Katelyn said, smirking a little, and Melanie couldn't help but roll her eyes at her. Typical Katelyn; never lost the chance to make a joke out of anything.

"What's gotten you so annoyed?" Sam asked, eyeing her sister curiously. It was clear in Melanie's face that there was something wrong; something really, really wrong.

"You have to come with me right now," Melanie said, talking so fast she tripped over the words a little bit, which only made Sam grow even more curious and confused by her sister's behavior.

"Why? What happened?" Sam asked, frowning.

"I need to talk to you, just not here! Come on!" Melanie grabbed Sam's wrist and started pulling her away from there.

Still resisting a little, Sam looked back at Katelyn, who was watching the two of them with a hint of amusement in her eyes. "Just try not to get too drunk to even stand upright before I come back, okay?" Sam pleaded as her sister tried to drag her away.

"No promises!" Sam heard Katelyn's response and rolled her eyes, finally letting her sister pull her away from there.

She had no idea what her sister wanted to talk about, but she could tell it was something pretty serious, or else Melanie wouldn't be acting so worried and weird. Sam suddenly felt a bit worried herself, but she tried not to show it much; at least not until she knew what all that was about.

It didn't take long until Sam found herself being pulled into a room that looked like some kind of office, where Sam guessed no guests were allowed to go, but it wasn't like she cared about that anyway. She eyed her sister curiously as Melanie closed the office door and locked it as soon as the two of them were inside, before turning around to finally face her sister, who had her eyebrows raised and arms folded over her chest.

"So, would you mind telling me why you had to drag me across the whole mansion to talk to me?" Sam questioned, and Melanie sighed loudly.

"Freddie is here."

The moment she heard those three words, Sam felt as if the whole world had shattered around her. She suddenly found herself unable to do anything else apart from staring at her sister with wide eyes, her voice long since gone.

"Wha… What did you just say?" Sam managed to ask after several seconds, hoping that she had heard her sister wrong. She couldn't have heard her right; she just couldn't.

"I said that Freddie is here," Melanie repeated, a little louder this time.

"How?" Sam asked, more to herself than to her sister. He wasn't supposed to be in Jacksonville, or even on that side of the country for that matter. It was winter break, so he was supposed to be in Seattle, preparing for Christmas with Carly, Spencer, Gibby and everyone else, so what the hell was he doing there?

"I don't know," Melanie replied, shaking her head lightly. "I just know that he's here. And he said that he wants to talk to you."

"He what?" Sam was shocked to know that he knew she was there as well, and also that he had talked to her sister. "So you talked to him?"

"Yeah, I did. Apparently, he's Maggie's cousin, and when the two of them were talking to Kyle, I walked up to where they were, but I didn't recognize him at first. When I did, I told Kyle to show Maggie around the mansion so I could talk to Freddie alone, but he didn't say much. He just asked if you were here too and then told me that he wanted to talk to you," Melanie explained quickly.

Sam was silent for a moment. She couldn't believe it; Freddie was actually there in that mansion. That thought seemed almost unreal; so much she could barely make herself believe it. She had spent the last whole year trying to do her best to avoid even thinking about everyone she had left behind, but one of them had suddenly showed up right in front of her eyes. Well, in front of her sister's eyes anyway.

"Do you think he knows about us?" Sam asked, fear suddenly washing over her. What if he had somehow found out about her being a vampire and just wanted to see it with his own eyes? What if he hated her?

"I can't tell," Melanie said, shaking her head lightly. "But what I can tell is that he's really angry."

"He probably hates me right now," Sam said, letting herself fall onto the nearby couch, before resting her head in her hands. She had never expected any of this to happen; she had never thought that anyone would ever find her. But now that it was actually happening, she felt so taken aback that she had no clue what to do.

"Well, I wouldn't say hate… I just think he's mad. If he doesn't know the truth, he probably thinks that you just faked your own death, and he doesn't even know why," Melanie said, trying to make her sister feel at least a tiny bit better, even though she knew that wouldn't work.

Sam didn't respond; she just tried to clear up her thoughts as she stood up from the couch and walked toward the door of the office, walking past her sister.

"I gotta talk to him. Do you have any idea where he went?" Sam asked as she unlocked the door.

"He said he'd be outside," Melanie said, and Sam replied with a light nod of her head, before exiting the room and making her way to the closest door that led to the back of the mansion she could find.

As Sam walked out of the mansion and into the back garden, she tried to calm herself down, but she was failing miserably at it. She had absolutely no idea what she was going to say to Freddie, but she knew that she had to go talk to him.

He was probably completely freaking out right now, and she needed to clear things up for him; she just didn't know what she'd tell him if he asked her why she had left. She couldn't tell him the truth; that would only make him completely terrified of her. That was, if he didn't already know. But she couldn't just not tell him anything either. She had to come up with something, and she had to do it quickly, before it was too late.

She looked around, scanning the huge garden right in front of her eyes. The back garden was so huge it could be easily mistaken by a small forest, a fact that would surely not help her much in her search. But as she took in her surroundings, her eyes caught sight of a dark figure sitting on a bench in the distance, and she instantly knew who it was.

Her feet started moving on their own as both nervousness and anticipation suddenly took over her. She felt nervous because of the conversation she knew she was about to have with Freddie. She knew that he was beyond pissed at her and that he probably had thousands of questions in his mind he'd want answers to, all of which he deserved to have, but also that she couldn't give to him. And she felt anticipation because she hadn't seen Freddie in exactly a year, and she was suddenly anxious to see him again. She briefly wondered if he had changed much; how he looked now.

The second emotion got the best of her, since she found herself gradually speeding up her pace as she made her way toward him. He was looking down, his elbows resting on his knees, apparently deep lost in thought, which was probably why he didn't notice her approaching him.

Sam walked down the stone steps that led to where he was sitting silently, not making a single sound as she tried to remain unnoticed. She had her vampire abilities to thank for that, since she could manage to be completely silent even while walking down a stone staircase wearing high heels.

Sam paused when she was standing just a few steps away from where Freddie was sitting, just so she could take a good look at him. She couldn't really see Freddie's face, but she was able to notice that he had finally gotten rid of that beard she and Carly always insisted he shaved, a thought that made her smile silently to herself. His hair was just like she remembered it - just a little bit messy and spiked on the front.

Sam didn't know how long she stood there, simply watching him, but she knew that it must have been over ten minutes. The truth was that she was afraid of what he might say to her. Having him think that she was dead had been pretty hard, but it was still something she could at least live with. But have him hate her for pretending to be dead for a whole year or be so afraid of her that he would never even want to see her again were two things she didn't know how to cope with.

She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down, and finally resumed walking, this time not bothering to remain unnoticed anymore. But much to her surprise, Freddie didn't look up at her; he just remained looking down as if he still hadn't noticed her, even though she knew he had.

Sam sat down on the bench right next to him without a word, and then waited. She wouldn't start speaking; she'd wait until he did it, because that would mean that he was ready. So she simply sat there, staring ahead at the small forest that surrounded the two, until Sam suddenly felt Freddie's eyes on her face.

She hesitated for a brief moment, but she soon made herself look at him, her crystal blue eyes meeting his deep chocolate brown ones, which were focused on her with so much intensity that she found herself unable to look away.

* * *

**Author's Note: I'm pretty sure you all hate me right now for ending the chapter there... XD**

**I wonder how their conversation will go... Hehe ;)**

**Thank you all so much for reading! =)**

**Reviews are very much appreciated ;D**

**xxiCarlyFanxx**


	10. Chapter 10: Bringing Out The Dead

**Disclaimer: I don't own iCarly or The Vampire Diaries.**

**Enjoy! ;D**

* * *

Darkness Times

Chapter 10: Bringing Out The Dead

**Freddie Benson**

Freddie had hoped that some fresh air would help him calm down after his conversation with Melanie, but he soon found out otherwise.

It was true then; Sam and Melanie had actually been alive all along. There had been a part of him that, in spite of everything he had read and heard, still doubted that could actually be true, and also that feared what would happen to him if he ended up finding out that he had done nothing but fool himself during the past three days, since he knew that all the progress he had made up until that point to get over Sam's death would come crashing down over him and to the ground.

But now that he knew everything he had done to get where he was now had actually not been in vain, he felt extremely conflicted.

The moment he had first seen Melanie, he had suddenly felt thrilled to know that she was alive, because that could only mean that Sam was alive as well. But his happiness was suddenly replaced by an emotion he hadn't been expecting to feel.

Anger.

He felt angry as he thought back at everything Carly, Spencer, he and everyone else had gone through thinking that Sam was dead. Hell, he almost even ended up getting himself killed because of all the pain he felt, and apparently, Sam didn't even care one tiny bit about that. She had been living on the other side of the country, pretending that nothing had happened while everyone she knew almost drowned in tears.

He couldn't understand why she had done what she did. He just couldn't find any coherent or plausible explanation as to why someone would ever fake their own death to simply take off and live in secrecy over two thousand miles away, knowing all the suffering they would cause among the people who loved them deeply.

He had tried to hold back his anger while talking to Melanie, but he knew that he hadn't done it quite well. He couldn't help it, though; the anger was just so intense he was surprised that he hadn't started yelling at Melanie right then and there, in front of everyone.

He sat down on a bench out in the enormous back garden of the mansion, resting his head on his hands as he took several deep breaths in a failing effort to try to calm himself down. There was nothing he could do now apart from wait; Sam was the one who would come to him, not the other way around.

That thought seemed pretty much unreal, especially because of its irony.

Freddie couldn't tell how much time had passed, but he knew it had probably been over twenty minutes, when he suddenly heard the sound of heels clattering against the stone ground. He knew very well who those footsteps belonged to, but he didn't look up. He caught a glimpse of the person taking a seat beside him from the corner of his eye, though, and that was already enough to make his heart begin to race inside his chest.

A few dragged on moments went by, until Freddie finally made himself look up at the girl sitting right next to him.

Sam wasn't looking at him; she had her gaze resting right ahead, probably examining their surroundings. As soon as Freddie's gaze settled upon her, all the anger he had been feeling inside of him up until that moment seemed to momentarily subside. The sight of Sam right in front of him, within arm's reach, suddenly filled him with so much happiness that he had to suppress the urge to pull her into his arms right then and there. Seeing her again, alive and breathing, was exactly what he had wished for the most for the past whole year.

But before he did anything else, he needed to talk to her about what had happened. He needed to understand her reasons for doing what she did, and just then he'd be able to decide if he could even forgive her.

Sam must have felt his gaze on her, because she soon looked up, her crystal blue eyes suddenly locked on his brown ones, which sent a chill down his spine. Freddie felt as if he was hypnotized by her intense gaze for a moment, which caused him to lose his ability to speak for several silent seconds.

The feeling wore off soon, though, and as soon as he found his voice again, Freddie found himself voicing his thoughts, asking her the question that had been haunting his every single thought for the past three whole days.

"Why would you do it?"

**Ryan Puckett**

Ryan couldn't stop himself from rolling his eyes.

He had spent the last whole hour trying to get away from a girl who just didn't seem willing to leave him alone. He had already told her that he had a girlfriend about five times, but she honestly didn't seem to care. She just kept openly flirting with him, not even bothering to be a tiny bit inconspicuous about it. No matter how many times he walked away from her hoping that he'd lose her in the crowd of people, she always managed to find him again. It was extremely annoying to say the least.

He had already given up on trying to get away from her and decided to simply ignore her, hoping that she would realize that he wasn't interested in her at all and go away, looking for someone else to bother. But apparently, that wasn't going to happen any time soon.

"But it wasn't really my fault, you know?" The girl, whose name Ryan hadn't even bothered to memorize, just refused to stop talking. "But then my brother tried to convince them that-"

"Listen," Ryan interrupted her, his patience long since gone. "How many times do I have to tell you that I have a girlfriend?"

"Well, I didn't ask you that, did I?" she said, smirking as she winked at him. "Anyway, back to what I was saying. So the next night, I got my dad's car and my brother and I went to the…" The girl's voice died down gradually as she stared into Ryan's eyes, her face suddenly emotionless.

Ryan usually would only use mind-compulsion in extreme cases, when he could find no other option, and his current situation fit perfectly into that description. He just didn't know what else to do to send that girl away.

"Walk away, please," he told the girl, looking straight into her eyes. "And don't bother me again," he added, and then watched as she blinked several times, as if she had just broken out of a trance, which was kind of true anyway.

She then turned on her heel and walked into the crowd without sending a single glance in Ryan's direction, which made him sigh in relief. He made a mental note to himself not to tell Katelyn about what had just happened, or else that girl would probably not live to see another day. Sure, the girl had managed to annoy the hell out of him, but that didn't mean that he wanted her to have her head bitten off by his highly jealous girlfriend.

Thinking of which, Ryan was suddenly curious to know where Katelyn was. As cheesy as it might sound, being away from her for too long made him feel sort of empty, so he soon found himself making his way through the crowd of people looking for her. It was just then that he remembered she and Sam had gone to the bar to get a few drinks, and he instantly headed there.

Before he could go far, though, he caught sight of a familiar figure walking in his direction, and as soon as he recognized who it was, he suddenly felt anger boiling up inside of him.

"Ryan, long time no see!" Tyler said, a sarcastic smirk playing on his lips.

Ryan glared at him, doing his best to hold back the urge to pull Tyler's heart out of his chest right in the middle of that room full of people, since that would surely draw some unwanted attention from the crowd that surrounded the two of them.

"What are you doing here?" Ryan asked, not even bothering to disguise the pure hatred in his voice.

The truth was that he truly hated Tyler. When he was still human, he had come to highly dislike Tyler because of everything he had done to Katelyn in the past, but back then, he didn't really have a solid reason to hate Tyler like he did now. After he was killed by Tyler, he gained a reason to hate him, but that wasn't exactly the case. Ryan had indeed wanted to turn by then, since he knew that he wouldn't be able to be with Katelyn while he was still human, or at least not for long, so he ended up only disliking Tyler a lot more, but he didn't exactly hate him.

But now, after everything Tyler had done to his sisters, Ryan had a pretty good reason to hate the green-eyed vampire standing right in front of him. Tyler had truly destroyed his sisters' lives, which was something Ryan would reverse at all costs if he could, but he knew that was impossible. Neither Sam nor Melanie had wanted to become vampires, and Tyler should have never taken that choice away from them.

Ryan hadn't tracked Tyler down and gone after him for revenge because both Sam and Melanie had asked him not to. He knew that they both hated Tyler as well, but according to them, he shouldn't risk ending up killed because of them. Revenge was what had gotten them in their current situation in the first place anyway, so nothing good would come from it for sure.

"What, I can't have fun anymore?" Tyler responded, the smirk never leaving his lips.

"I honestly don't care what you do," Ryan said through his gritted teeth, before walking past Tyler, bumping his shoulder into the other vampire's on purpose.

"How is Katelyn?" Tyler called after Ryan, which caused him to pause where he stood.

Ryan didn't even bother to turn around to respond. "She's great, as long as you don't keep running after her, practically begging for her forgiveness." Only then Ryan allowed himself to send a glance over his shoulder to register Tyler's reaction to his words.

An emotion Ryan failed to identify crossed Tyler's features, but it vanished quickly. Hurt? Anger? Ryan couldn't tell for sure, but it did intrigue him a bit. "I'm not begging for anything," Tyler said finally, his voice low. "I just hope that someday she'll give me a chance to explain things."

At first, Ryan didn't know how to respond. Soon, though, the surprise caused by Tyler's words wore off, and he then found himself responding in a cold, hard tone. "I wouldn't hold my breath." And with that, Ryan walked away without a single glance behind.

He then resumed his search, but now he had a whole new purpose in his mind. He didn't simply need to find Katelyn; he needed to find Sam, Melanie and Kyle as well so he could warn them about who was there in that mansion and tell them to be careful.

**Sam Puckett**

"Why would you do it?" Freddie's voice was just as low as a whisper, and the single sound of it was already enough to send a chill down Sam's spine.

Sam stared at him for a brief moment, suddenly unable to find the right words to say. She still didn't know if he knew she was a vampire, so she couldn't tell what exactly he meant by that. She looked down and shook her head lightly, trying to clear up her thoughts, but her mind came up blank.

At Sam's hesitation, Freddie spoke once again. "Why would you fake your own death?" Freddie rephrased his question, his eyes never leaving her face.

She was silent for a moment, still having trouble in how to respond. Apparently, Freddie didn't know about what she had become, but that didn't make it any easier for her to find the right thing to say. "I didn't…" she started, but quickly changed her mind about what she'd say. "It's a really complicated story."

"It's not like I'm not willing to hear it, is it?" Freddie replied, his voice low and with a hint of impatience that didn't go unnoticed by Sam. "You've been living on the other side of the country for _whole_ year, while everyone thought you were _dead_!" Freddie shook his head lightly. "Why did you leave like that?"

"I just…" Sam's voice got caught in her throat, and she shook her head lightly. She had no idea how to tell him anything without giving away something she shouldn't. "I had no choice but leaving," she said after a long, silent pause.

Freddie frowned lightly at her, exasperation suddenly taking over his features. "How could you not have had a choice?"

"I had to leave!" Sam exclaimed, standing up from the bench.

Freddie stood up as well. "Would you stop doing that?" he asked, the volume of his voice suddenly becoming louder than he had intended to, but at the moment, he apparently didn't care.

"Doing what?" she asked, trying to sound as if she really had no idea what he was talking about.

Freddie stared at her with a look of clear disbelief on his face for a moment, before finally speaking up again. "Beating around the bush and never giving me any kind of solid answer!" he said, throwing his arms up in the air in frustration.

Sam sighed, running her hands through her golden hair. Freddie was making this a lot more difficult than she had thought it would be, but she had to admit that she shouldn't have expected any less coming from him. She couldn't even imagine what was going through his head at that moment, but she knew there must be over a million questions he wanted to ask her, and it was clear to her that he was extremely frustrated that she apparently wasn't willing to give him any of the answers he was craving.

The truth was that she was still afraid of telling him what had really happened to her a year ago, now even more than before. Seeing just how angry he seemed to be at her made her even more sure that he would never forgive her for leaving, and maybe he'd even be so afraid of her that he would never want to see her again. She wasn't willing to take that risk, but she couldn't just keep avoiding answering every question he asked her either. Deep down she knew that he'd somehow find out the truth sooner or later, but no matter how many times she told herself that, she just couldn't stop herself from being hesitant.

"I just…" Freddie's voice suddenly broke Sam out of her trance. He closed the distance between the two of them with two steps and came to a stop when he was standing right in front of her. His tone was suddenly so low, calm and soft that it even surprised her. "I just want to understand why you would pretend to be dead and take off to the other side of the country. Do you have any idea what Carly, Spencer, me and everyone else went through because of you?"

Sam had been aware of what Freddie had just said since the exact moment she had decided to leave Seattle forever and forget about the life she used to have, but the fact that she was actually hearing those words coming from him of all people made her suddenly question if what she had done had actually been the right thing to do. She had done her best to avoid those thoughts when she had first left, but during the twelve months she had lived as a vampire in Jacksonville, she found herself unable not to wonder how everyone had handled her 'death'.

She suddenly felt horrible as she thought about all the pain everyone she loved had gone through because of her, just like every time she let herself go through that same line of thought.

"I…" Sam started, but paused for a moment, trying to figure out what she should say. She didn't have the chance to say anything else, though, since a familiar mocking voice suddenly broke the silence, making them both turn around in an effort to try to spot whoever had spoken.

"Well, isn't this an emotional conversation?"

A chill went down Sam's spine as soon as she heard those words, believing that she knew who that voice belonged to, but hoping with everything she had that she was wrong. She just couldn't deal with that at the moment; not with the predicament she suddenly found herself in.

But much to her despair and annoyance, there, leaning against a tree just a few steps away from where she and Freddie were standing, was the person she had hoped she would never have to see again, and who could have disappeared from the face of earth for all she cared.

Tyler.

**Jorge Puckett**

Jorge scanned his surroundings nervously.

It hadn't been hard to find the mansion Tyler had mentioned, and, much to his surprise, it was even easier to get inside said mansion. He guessed it was because whatever celebration that was going on in there had already been happening for several hours, and right now, the host of the party didn't really care who entered the place anymore.

A part of him couldn't help but think of how dangerous that was – the cop part of him, of course. But the worried father part got the best of him, and he ended up being glad that practically anyone could go inside, for it meant that he'd have no problem getting inside the mansion as well.

But as soon as he stepped inside that mansion, his heart started racing like crazy, since that was the exact moment when he actually realized what being there really meant. That was the place where Sam, Melanie and/or Ryan could be, and he was about to come face to face with them once again.

And he wasn't sure if he was ready for that just yet.

That moment had always seemed extremely surreal and distant in his mind - the moment when he'd actually see Sam and Melanie again. But now that it might happen in just a matter of minutes, he began to actually freak out on the inside, since he had absolutely no idea how he should even act around the two.

He sure wasn't expecting any kind of father-daughters bonding time. He just wanted to have the chance to know if they were okay and to tell them that even if he had spent the last six years of his life hunting down vampires, he'd never hurt them. They were still his daughters, no matter what.

But what truly made him freak out was the fact that he might also be about to meet his son, who had been supposedly dead for the past six years, but who might have actually turned into a vampire and lived in secret from his family since the night he had been killed.

Jorge still didn't know how he should feel if that was actually true. The thought that Ryan might actually still be alive – well, kind of alive, anyway – made him feel both insanely happy and angry at the same time.

He felt happy for obvious reasons. Ryan was his son, and his death had actually managed to break him. He guessed he could even say that it had broken him in a much worse way than Sam and Melanie being turned into vampires had, since even though the twins had also died, he still had hope that he hadn't actually lost them forever. But with Ryan, there was no doubt that was true. He had permanently lost him, and there was no possible way to get him back. The thought that Ryan might actually still be among the living was at the same time thrilling and unreal.

But he also felt angered. Hadn`t Ryan thought about what would happen to his family if he pretended to be dead? Jorge could have never felt any stronger and deeper pain in his whole life, and he didn`t think he ever would. The pain of losing a child could not compare to anything, and he somehow found himself unable not to feel angry at his son for making his family go through so much suffering.

And yet, his mind briefly registered the fact that Sam and Melanie had done pretty much the same thing to everyone they knew just a year ago. He knew that there was no comparison between the pain resultant from the loss of a child and the one from the loss of a friend, but both situations were still pretty similar in various ways; there was no way to deny that.

Jorge shook his head lightly, trying to break out of his thoughts as he kept nervously scanning his surroundings, trying to spot any one of the three familiar faces he had come to deeply miss during the past few years. His eyes kept darting between the dozens of faces that belonged to total strangers as a bitter thought suddenly crept its way into his mind before he even had the chance to stop it.

It was pretty ironic how the three children of a vampire hunter had been turned into vampires.

He shook his head once again, having to remind himself that he wasn`t even sure that Ryan had actually turned six years ago for what he guessed was the hundredth time in the past whole hour. Tyler could not be trusted, so Jorge would only allow himself to actually believe what the vampire had told him when he saw Ryan with his own eyes.

Jorge sighed as he kept walking through the crowd, and soon, another thought crossed his mind - one that he hadn`t considered up until that very moment.

What if Tyler was actually just trying to trick him? What if neither one of his children were actually there?

That thought made Jorge pause where he was, not being able to avoid calling himself a fool. How had he not seen it before? They couldn't be there. And even if they were, why would Tyler tell him about it? It was just then that Jorge realized how foolish it had been for him to believe what Tyler had told him. This could even be some kind of trap to get him killed for all he knew.

Jorge let out another sigh, suddenly fully convinced that everything Tyler had told him had been a lie. He was already prepared to just turn on his heel and leave when his eyes suddenly caught sight of a familiar figure standing by the bar on the other side of the huge hall he currently found himself standing in.

A blonde girl with straight hair and sparkling blue eyes was smiling and laughing at something whoever was sitting right beside her had probably said. She looked like she was about seventeen or eighteen years old, but Jorge knew that she'd turn twenty in just a few months.

Jorge suddenly felt as if a thousand pounds had been lifted off his shoulders as soon as he laid his eyes upon her. He had feared that maybe the twins wouldn't make it as vampires, a thought that had haunted him for the past whole year, but now, seeing Melanie there, smiling and laughing, he felt almost relieved.

But the feeling didn't last long, because he then noticed the dark haired girl Melanie was talking to. The girl had long straight black hair and clear green eyes, and the resemblance between her and the vampire Jorge had practically tortured just an hour ago was so striking that Jorge suddenly felt anger boiling up inside of him once again.

Now that he was actually seeing Katelyn, he remembered the only time he had ever met her, back in 2007. Ryan had introduced her to him as his girlfriend, and back then, Jorge had actually liked the girl. If he had known what she was, he'd have done everything he could to keep her as far away from his family as possible, even if he had to stake her himself.

But there was no use in thinking about what he should have done in the past, so he finally made himself focus back on the present. He managed to tear his eyes away from Melanie and Katelyn and scanned his surroundings once again, assuming that if Melanie was around there, then so must be her twin sister.

But instead of finding Sam, he ended up catching sight of someone else walking toward the bar, their gaze completely focused to the two female vampires. Jorge couldn't see the man's face, but he could tell that he couldn't be older than eighteen – or at least that was the age he looked like. His hair was golden, about the exact same colors as the Puckett twins' hair was, and his frame was thin and slightly muscular.

Jorge's heart began to beat like crazy as he watched the figure curiously, his eyes wide with shock. For a brief moment, the young man merely a few steps away from him let his eyes wander over the crowd, but much to Jorge's relief, the figure didn't notice him. And the moment Jorge managed to see the man's face, his breath got caught in his throat as his world seemed shatter and crumble down all around him.

Ryan.

**Melanie Puckett**

Melanie caught sight of someone approaching the bar from the corner of her eye, but she didn't even bother to check who it was, judging it as unimportant at the moment. Even though she was trying to have fun with Katelyn, she was extremely worried about her sister.

Melanie was the only one who knew everything that had happened to Sam during the past whole year, including how she felt about Freddie and what she had done to him the night she left Seattle. And she was also the only person who knew just how broken Sam was after they left and how much she struggled in order not to go back.

Sam had turned off her humanity for about three months after they left Seattle, hoping that it would help her ease the pain and make things easier - that it would help her forget the ones she had left behind. Melanie could tell it had worked in the beginning, but just as Ryan had told them both, humanity was a vampire's greatest weakness; no matter how much Sam tried to run away from it, it always found a way to crawl its way back to her.

Because of everything Sam had told her, Melanie knew just how much Freddie suddenly showing up in Jacksonville meant to her sister. She knew that Sam had been afraid of losing everyone she cared about if any one of them ever found out she was a vampire, that being one of the main reasons why she had decided to leave Seattle in the first place, and Melanie knew that Sam would have to either tell Freddie the truth or erase his memories once again.

That was a pretty tough predicament, and Melanie couldn't even imagine how her sister must be feeling at that moment, considering just how much she'd lose if she made the wrong decision.

Melanie just hoped that Sam would make the right one.

Melanie suddenly snapped out of her thoughts when she realized that whoever had been walking toward the bar had come to a stop right next to her and Katelyn, and when she looked up, she realized that they weren't any kind of random person. They were, in fact, her brother.

"Hey, are you two alright?" Ryan asked as soon as he reached the two, who couldn't help but frown at him.

"Uh, yeah," Katelyn replied, eyeing him curiously. "Why wouldn't we be?"

"Tyler is here." The sound of the glass that had been in Katelyn's hand during the past whole hour shattering into pieces was muffled by the loud music that was playing, which was fortunately enough to distract the people who surrounded them, or maybe they were just too busy having fun to care.

"What?" Melanie found herself asking, realizing that Katelyn was apparently too shocked to do so. "What is he doing here?"

"I have no idea," Ryan answered, shaking his head lightly. "Where's Sam?"

"Out in the back garden," Melanie replied quickly.

"If that bastard really thinks that I'll forgive him for what he did just because it's been over thirty years, he'll only earn several bloody wounds," Katelyn said through her gritted teeth, hatred clear in her voice.

"I don't think he'll try to talk to you, but that doesn't change the fact that he's still here," Ryan said, sounding just as angry as Katelyn.

"I'd better go find Sam," Melanie said suddenly. "Someone's gotta warn her." She earned a nod in response from both Ryan and Katelyn, before taking off toward the closest door that led to the back garden she could find.

And in just a matter of seconds, Melanie found herself walking out of the mansion, the huge garden surrounding her in all directions as she desperately looked for her sister.

**Sam Puckett**

Sam clearly tensed up as she stared at the vampire who had destroyed her life one year ago.

Tyler had a smirk playing on his lips as he studied the two of them carefully, as if he found their current situation completely amusing. Sam felt the urge to jump on him and rip his heart out right then and there, but she didn't do it because she knew Tyler was older than her and could probably overpower her without making much effort, and also because Freddie was standing just a few steps away from her, and the scene would surely not have a very positive outcome concerning what Freddie thought of her.

"By all means, carry on. It was getting pretty entertaining," Tyler said, his tone of voice extremely malicious.

Sam felt anger boiling up inside of her, and she had to use every single ounce of self-control she had not to try to bite his head off. "What are you doing here?" she found herself asking, her voice cold and hard, making it obvious just how much she disliked him.

"I'm here to give you a warning," Tyler replied, the smirking vanishing from his lips as he took a few steps toward the two.

Sam quickly stepped forward and in front of Freddie, as if shielding him, since she had no idea if Tyler intended to attack either one of them. "What kind of warning?" she asked.

"Your father broke into my house tonight." Tyler made a short pause, as if letting the meaning his words sink in, before speaking up again when he was standing right in front of Sam. "So if I were you, I'd try to put some sense into his head, before things get..." Tyler hesitated for a moment, glancing briefly at Freddie, before focusing his gaze back on Sam. "Messy." Tyler's tone was icy cold during his whole speech, and it was extremely easy for Sam to tell that he wasn't lying or simply trying to scare her.

"I wouldn't try anything if I were you," Sam said, her gaze filled with pure hatred.

"Well, let's hope it doesn't come to that, then," Tyler said, his gaze just as intense as hers.

The two vampires simply glared at each other for a moment, until Tyler suddenly tore his eyes away from Sam's and walked past her and toward the mansion without a single glance behind.

Sam was frozen for a moment, her mind suddenly racing. Her father was there, in Jacksonville? But what the hell was he doing there? Had he been looking for Tyler? Or had he been looking for her and her sister? There were millions of questions running through her head at the moment, but she didn't have time to try to figure out the answer to any of them.

"Who the hell was that?" Freddie's voice brought Sam back to reality abruptly.

Sam turned around, suddenly remembering that Freddie was there, and also realizing that he had witnessed her and Tyler's little exchange. "He's just..." she started, but found herself unable to finish. What could she say to him? That he was the vampire who had turned her one year ago? Someone she had met there in Jacksonville and highly despised? She knew Freddie well enough to know that he wouldn't buy any kind of story she made up, which was exactly why she suddenly found herself speechless, with absolutely no idea what to tell him.

"There you go again, avoiding telling me anything," Freddie said, the confusion that had been clear in his face suddenly replaced by annoyance and impatience.

Sam sighed in defeat, trying to organize her thoughts. "Freddie, I... I'm sorry. I just... I know that if I tell you the reason I left... You're gonna hate me, or never want to see me again." Sam's voice was just as low as a whisper.

Freddie seemed confused for a moment, until he took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, as if trying to calm himself down. "You don't even seem willing to tell me," Freddie replied in a just as low tone of voice. "I just want some kind of explanation. That's all I'm asking for."

Sam was silent for a few seconds. She somehow managed to hold Freddie's intense gaze with her own, but she felt as if she had lost her voice, and even if she still had her ability to speak, she wouldn't know what to say to him.

Realizing that Sam wouldn't answer, Freddie let out sigh. "Okay, fine. Don't tell me anything," he said. "Just know that no matter what it is that you're keeping from me... I could never hate you." And with that, Freddie turned on his heel and walked away, heading back to the mansion, not even giving Sam a chance to respond, or to even process the meaning of his words for that matter.

Sam watched as Freddie made his way back to the mansion, her heart suddenly heavy. She wanted to tell him the truth; she knew that she owed that to him after everything she had made him go through for the past whole year, but she was still afraid of how he would react to what he would hear. She had no way to know what he'd think of her, and she was afraid that she'd lose him forever if she told him the truth.

"Sam!" a familiar voice broke Sam out of her trance, and she quickly scanned her surroundings, only to find her sister approaching her in a hurried pace.

"What now?" Sam asked, afraid of what she might hear. The last time her sister had walked up to her like that had been to tell her that Freddie was there at the party, and seeing the scene repeat itself right in front of her eyes made her wonder if whatever her sister had to tell her could make her night even more complicated than it already was.

"Tyler is here," Melanie blurted out as soon as she reached her sister, who couldn't help but give the other twin an annoyed look.

"You don't say," Sam said sarcastically, and Melanie frowned at her,

"You knew it already?" she asked, sounding a bit taken aback.

"Well, let me see," Sam began, hint of impatience clear in her voice. "He showed up while I was talking to Freddie, threatened to kill our father because, apparently, Dad thought it would be a good idea to break into Tyler's house to try to kill him, and basically made things even more screwed up than they already were."

"Oh..." Melanie seemed unable to find a way to respond to that for a moment. "Wait, Dad is here?" Melanie's eyes widened slightly as the meaning of Sam's words really sank in.

Sam nodded lightly in response, but didn't feel the need to say anything.

"Do you think he came after us?" Melanie asked when she realized that her sister wouldn't say anything.

"Honestly, I have no idea," Sam replied, shaking her head lightly. Sam really couldn't make herself think about her father at the moment, though; not with the conversation she had just had with Freddie still so fresh in her mind.

Melanie soon realized what was going through her sister's head. "How did it go? Your conversation with Freddie, I mean," she asked, suddenly breaking the silence.

Sam sighed. "Horrible," she replied, shaking her head lightly. "He wants me to tell him the truth, but I just... can't do it."

"Why can't you just tell him?" Melanie asked, eyeing her sister curiously.

"You know very well why not," Sam replied, looking away from her sister and back at the mansion. Freddie was nowhere in sight now, and Sam briefly wondered where he had gone. Had he left? Had he decided to stay and try to get his mind off things at the party? Sam couldn't know.

"You think he might be afraid of you," Melanie said, and Sam nodded lightly in response, but didn't say anything. "Well... Maybe you could compel him again."

"No, I'm never gonna do that again," Sam said quickly, shaking her head lightly at her sister's words.

It had truly hurt her to erase Freddie's memories one year ago, and that certainly wasn't an experience she'd like to repeat. But above all, she hated to think of him as someone she could manipulate so easily; she didn't want to have to mess up with his mind ever again.

But she couldn't just keep avoiding telling him the truth, either. But then, what was she supposed to do? She'd be putting too much at risk if she decided to just open up to him, but she was risking just as much by not telling him anything. She knew that he deserved to know the truth, no matter how painful it might be for her to watch the way he looked at her change completely the second he found out about what she had become.

Even if he didn't hate her or fear her to the point of never wanting to see her again, she knew that he'd never be able to look at her the same way ever again. He'd look at her and see a vampire - a monster, a murderer, - and not the best friend she had been to him during the past few years.

It was no secret to her that her chances of being with him were doomed, but above all, she didn't want to lose his friendship.

But deep down she knew that it was useless to keep it all from him. The fact that he had somehow found her was already enough to prove to her that he was more than capable of finding out the truth on his own, and Sam knew that things would be even worse that way.

"Then what are you gonna do?" Melanie asked her sister, abruptly breaking Sam out of her thoughts. "You can't just keep lying to him forever. He'll find out the truth sooner or later."

Melanie was right, and Sam knew that; she guessed she just needed to hear it to finally be able to make a decision. Lying to Freddie would only make things even worse than they already were, and since erasing his memories again was completely out of the question, all that left Sam with only one possible thing to do.

Sam tore her eyes away from the mansion and rested her gaze upon her sister. "I'm gonna go look for him."

"But what are you gonna tell him?" Melanie asked, frowning lightly, but she was met with silence for a few seconds.

Sam took in a deep breath, as if trying to steady herself before answering, "The truth."

* * *

**Author's Note: Please review! =)**

**xxiCarlyFanxx**


	11. Chapter 11: Mystery of You

**Disclaimer: I don't own iCarly or The Vampire Diaries!**

**Enjoy! ;)**

* * *

Darkness Times

Chapter 11: Mystery of You

**Jorge Puckett**

Jorge stared at the cup in his hand with a blank expression on his face.

He still hadn't been able to fully process what he had found out barely a few minutes ago. Up until that moment, he had still doubted what Tyler had told him about Ryan, but seeing his son with his own eyes made it impossible for him to deny the truth behind Tyler's words.

Ryan had indeed turned six years ago, and he had been living in secret, away from his family and friends, ever since.

It was extremely odd to see Ryan still looking exactly the way he did back in 2007. Of course, Jorge was aware of the fact that if he was really a vampire, he wasn't aging anymore, but it was still quite weird to know that he was 22 years old when he looked like he couldn't be older than 18. The same applied to Sam and Melanie, but not with so much intensity, since they had only been vampires for a year.

"By the look on you face, I'm guessing you've already seen Ryan," a mocking voice suddenly broke Jorge out of his thoughts, and he looked up abruptly, only to find Tyler taking a seat right next to him at the bar. Melanie, Ryan and Katelyn had left the place several minutes ago, and since Jorge felt like he could really use a drink, he had decided to take their place. He just hoped that they wouldn't go back while he was still there, since he didn't feel ready to talk to them so soon, especially not to Ryan.

"Go away, Tyler," Jorge said angrily, his voice low as he looked away from the green-eyed vampire. "I'm seriously not in the mood."

Much to Jorge's annoyance, though, Tyler ignored him. "Isn't it funny how ironic this whole thing is? I mean, you being a vampire hunter and your three children being vampires," Tyler said, the volume of his voice dropping in an effort to make his words go unheard by anyone else but Jorge.

"Go to hell," Jorge said through his gritted teeth, practically slamming his empty glass on the counter right in front of him. Anger boiled up inside of him, but he knew that he couldn't try anything against Tyler in the middle of such a big crowd, so before he did anything stupid that he would most likely regret later, he began to walk away from the bar without a single glance behind.

"Aw, don't be like that," Tyler said in the same mocking tone from before, but Jorge ignored him. "You don't even know the whole story yet."

That made Jorge pause, even though he wasn't sure if he really wanted to hear what Tyler was about to tell him. Even if what Tyler had told him earlier had proven itself to be true just a few minutes ago, the vampire still couldn't entirely be trusted. But that thought wasn't enough to suppress Jorge's curiosity. He still wanted to know as much as possible about what had happened to his son six years ago, and since he couldn't ask Ryan himself about it – at least not yet, anyway – he ended up having to find other ways to figure out the truth.

"What else is there for me to know?" Jorge asked, his tone hard. Even though he was extremely curious, he didn't want to let it show, since he didn't want Tyler to think that Jorge actually trusted him, because honestly, he didn't.

Tyler didn't instantly respond. He walked toward Jorge slowly, and when he spoke again, he was standing right in front of the vampire hunter. The tone of his voice was so low that there was no way anyone around them would have been able to hear the words he said. At least no one human, anyway. "Ryan _wanted_ to become a vampire."

Jorge was frozen, suddenly losing his ability to speak for a moment. It took him a few seconds, but he finally managed to form a coherent sentence after a while. "Why are you telling me this?" Jorge asked, eyeing Tyler with a look of pure disbelief on his face.

"Because I don't want you going after my sister because you think it was all her fault. I was the one who killed Ryan. His having Katelyn's blood in his system was just something I didn't foresee. But if I hadn't killed him, he would probably have turned later on anyway," Tyler told Jorge in a low tone, and there was an emotion in his eyes that Jorge couldn't entirely define.

And without any kind of warning, Tyler suddenly walked past Jorge and vanished as he entered the crowd of people, instantly getting out of sight.

Jorge could do nothing but stand there for several minutes, his mind racing as he tried to process what he had just heard.

Could Tyler really be telling him the truth?

It seemed impossible for Jorge that someone might actually want to become a vampire, but after everything he had found out that night, he guessed he shouldn't judge anything as impossible anymore.

But what he couldn't quite understand was why Tyler had even told him that in the first place. What would he get with that? It sure didn't make Jorge's hatred for the vampire disminish even one tiny bit, so what was the point of all that?

A curious thought crossed his mind, and he couldn't help but frown at it. Could Tyler be trying to protect his sister? The thought sounded so foreign that Jorge almost instantly pushed it away, but he had to admit that there was no other explanation for it.

Jorge had indeed suddenly grown a strong feeling of dislike toward Katelyn as soon as he found out that she had been the one responsible for Ryan turning into a vampire, even though Tyler had been the one that had actually killed him, but he hadn't considered staking her. He had watched her, Melanie and Ryan for a while, and he had come to the decision that no matter how much anger he felt toward Tyler's sister, he wouldn't kill her for Ryan.

But Tyler didn't know that, and maybe he was worried about his sister's safety.

But was that even possible? Jorge would have never guessed that Tyler was even capable of caring for anyone else but his own self, so it was no surprise that Tyler's apparent attempt to protect Katelyn had come out as a shock to him.

Maybe there was some humanity left in Tyler after all.

**Freddie Benson**

Freddie felt extremely frustrated.

When he'd first gotten on a plane to Jacksonville, he had believed that this trip would make everything clear to him; that he'd finally be able to understand why Sam and Melanie had faked their own deaths and lived in secret on the other side of the country for a whole year, not even caring about all the suffering everyone they had left behind went through.

But now he could see how wrong he had been.

Sam didn't seem willing at all to explain things to him, even though that was the least she could do. Didn't she think that he deserved to know the truth? And if she did, what was making her so hesitant about opening up to him?

_Maybe she's afraid of telling me the truth, _Freddie thought, thinking back at what Sam had told him about him hating her if she told him the truth.

But what could be so bad that would make him hate her? He had absolutely no idea, but he could tell that whatever she was hiding, it was something big. It surely couldn't be something big enough to make him hate her, though. Of course, he might be extremely angry at her, but he could never actually hate her.

Freddie walked through the crowd of people in the main hall of the mansion not really knowing where he was going. He wasn't headed to any particular place; he just wanted to get away from Sam for a while in a failing effort to try to calm himself down. He was even considering leaving the party without Maggie, who would for sure not want to go home this early. He just felt so angered that he didn't even feel like being in the same place as Sam at the moment.

But just as he started to make his way to the main entrance of the mansion, his eyes caught sight of a familiar figure walking through the crowd right ahead. It was the same guy who had apparently come out of nowhere when he was talking to Sam out in the back garden and who also seemed to know a lot more than Freddie about what was going on.

Freddie followed the figure whose name still remained unknown to him with his eyes, until he suddenly made a decision.

If Sam wasn't going to tell him the truth, then maybe he'd be able to get some answers out of that guy, whoever he was.

Keeping that thought in mind, he began making his way up to where the mysterious guy had been barely two seconds ago. But when he got there, he saw no sign of the guy anywhere. He looked around confusedly, wondering how someone could simply vanish in the thin air like that, when he suddenly spotted the guy on the other side of the hall, near the huge staircase that led to the second floor of the mansion.

For a brief moment, he wondered how the guy had gotten there so fast, but he soon pushed those thoughts aside and resumed trying to walk up to the dark haired man.

Freddie could have sworn that for a second, the guy looked in his direction, but it happened so fast that he might have simply imagined it.

The guy suddenly started to ascend the stairs in a calm pace, soon vanishing from sight as he made his way up to the second floor.

When Freddie got to the bottom of the staircase, he hesitated for a moment, staring up at the white marble steps right before his eyes. He wondered where the guy was going, and if he should really follow him. He had no idea who the guy was, so was it a really good idea for Freddie to follow him to some unknown and distant part of such a huge mansion like that one?

Every single part of him was telling him not to go; to just turn around and leave that mansion, but his mind didn't seem to agree with that idea. He wanted more than anything to know what Sam refused to tell him, so he ended up going against his instincts to leave the party and started to climb up the staircase.

When he got to the second floor, he found himself standing in a wide hallway with dozens of doors on each side and dark red walls. The carpet was also red, and there were paintings with light colors spread all over the walls.

The hallway seemed to be endless in both directions, but differently from what Freddie had been expecting, there were several people there. The majority of them were couples making out, and in the few seconds Freddie stood there, he witnessed two couples going inside what he guessed were two empty rooms, which had their doors unlocked for some reason.

Freddie started to feel uncomfortable at the sight, but the feeling vanished as soon as his eyes caught sight of a familiar man walking down the hallway on his left, and even though Freddie could see nothing apart from the man's back, he instantly knew who it was.

Freddie turned left and started walking down the hallway as well, following the mysterious guy as he made his way past several couples. The fact that the hallway was actually packed with people made him feel slightly more confident about what he was doing, but there was still a voice in the back of his head desperately telling him to get the hell out of that place, which he ignored.

The man suddenly turned right on a corner, and Freddie sped up his pace a little bit in order to not let the man get out of sight. When he rounded the corner as well, he noticed that the hallway he now found himself standing in was exactly like the other one, so he made a mental note to himself to memorize where he was going, since he didn't want to get lost in the maze of identical hallways inside the mansion.

There were less people in that hallway than there had been in the previous one, and that pattern repeated itself when Freddie rounded two other corners.

As Freddie walked, he kept wondering where the guy might be going, and the only explanation he found was that he was probably going to meet someone somewhere deep into the mansion, where he could have some privacy.

But no matter how fast Freddie walked, he didn't seem to be making any progress in catching up with the guy. Even if in a second he was barely a few steps away from the man, when he rounded a corner, the distance between them seemed to be five times as big as it had been just two seconds ago. But that didn't convince Freddie to give up, even if he was practically running now.

_Left, right, right, left, left… Left, right, right, left, left… _Freddie repeated the pattern in his mind, trying to prevent himself from forgetting the way back to the staircase that led to the first floor. _Left, right, right, left, left, right- _He stopped abruptly when he rounded a corner and found himself standing in a deserted hallway, the mysterious guy nowhere in sight.

Freddie frowned as he scanned his surroundings, not understanding how he could have lost the guy like that.

_Where the hell is he?_ Freddie wondered briefly, when a suddenly cold breeze sent a chill down his spine and he shivered involuntarily. That normally wouldn't have made Freddie feel as nervous as it did, if it wasn't for the fact that there weren't any windows in the hallway, or at least not anywhere in sight.

Freddie's heart suddenly started racing inside his chest. It was like he knew that something bad was about to happen. The silence in the hallway was so intense it made Freddie grow even more nervous and he somehow knew that he was being watched. Every single cell of his body was telling him to run away from that hallway, and this time, he actually listened to them.

But he didn't have the chance to.

When he spun around, he was shocked to see that the mysterious man was standing right behind him, blocking his way. The man had an amused look in his eyes and a hint of a smirk on his lips.

"Well, well," the man began, eyeing Freddie with great curiosity. "You're a curious little human, aren't you?"

Freddie frowned at the way he said the word 'human', since he sounded as if he didn't consider himself to be human. "Who the hell are you?" Freddie managed to ask, not tearing his eyes away from the man for even a second.

The man chuckled lightly. "I'm pretty sure you've already heard about me," he said, his features earning a somewhat serious expression. "My name is Tyler, if that rings a bell."

Freddie's eyes widened as realization suddenly dawned upon him. He remembered hearing Jorge mentioning Tyler's name when he overheard Jorge and Pam's conversation. He had thought that Tyler was the psycopath who had killed Sam and Melanie, but that had been before he overheard Jorge's conversation on the phone and found Sam's letter the night he broke into the officer's house. But even though he now knew that Tyler couldn't have killed the two, since he had seen that both twins were still alive with his own eyes, he somehow knew that Tyler was involved in the reason why the two faked their own deaths.

And he could somehow tell that Tyler was a dangerous guy, which meant that he needed to get out of there as soon as possible.

"What? Cat got your tongue?" Tyler asked, smirking once again. He seemed to find their current situation completely amusing. "You know, I honestly don't get how you could be stupid enough to follow me here. Do you have a death wish or something?"

Freddie hesitated for a moment before responding. "I just want to know what the hell is going on," he finally said.

Tyler raised an eyebrow at him. "You seriously know nothing about it?" he asked, sounding slightly surprised.

Freddie simply shook his head in response.

Tyler laughed lightly for a moment, as if his night had just gotten whole a lot better after hearing that. "Well, let's just say that your little friend is not who you think she is," Tyler said, his smirk widening even more. "The girl you knew one year ago is dead, and I'm the one who killed her."

Freddie shook his head, doubting every single word that left Tyler's mouth. "You're insane," he said.

"Am I?" Tyler questioned, seeming to be even more amused than before.

"If you really killed her, then how come she's still alive?" Freddie asked.

Tyler chuckled once again. "And who told you that she's still alive?"

Freddie didn't respond; he simply frowned at Tyler. Now he completely regretted following Tyler into those hallways, considering that he seemed to be a complete nutcase.

"Now, I think that's enough talking, don't you agree? This is getting boring pretty fast," Tyler said suddenly as an emotion Freddie couldn't entirely define crossed his eyes.

Freddie simply stared at Tyler for a second, not sure what he should do or say, or even if he should do anything at all.

And that was when it all happened.

Tyler's eyes suddenly changed - the white part of them earned a red color, while black veins suddenly appeared on the skin under his eyes, as if they wanted to tear his skin apart from the inside. Tyler parted his lips slightly, which allowed Freddie to see the sharp, pointy fangs that had suddenly appeared where Tyler's canine teeth should be as a low snarl escaped his lips.

Freddie's breath got caught in his throat at the sight, his eyes widening in both shock and fear. He had never seen anything like that in his life, nor had he been prepared to see. He was so shocked that he was frozen for a moment, his brain ceasing to function for a few seconds, until he finally regained control over his own body and made his legs move.

He took off running in the opposite direction he had come from, going even deeper into the mansion hallways. He didn't even bother to try to memorize where he was going; the only important thing in his mind at the moment was getting away from Tyler as soon as possible.

He ran for so long that he soon grew too tired to continue, and there was nothing else he could do apart from coming to a stop. He bent over, resting his hands on his knees as he tried to steady his heavy breathing.

There was no sign of Tyler anywhere, and for a brief moment, Freddie felt relieved, believing that he had somehow gotten away from him.

But the relief didn't last longer than a few seconds.

Freddie suddenly felt that same cold breeze against his skin from earlier, and when he spun around in surprise, he was able to make out the sight of someone rounding him so fast that the person was barely a blur, before suddenly vanishing from the hallway.

And that was when Freddie realized that he hadn't gotten away from Tyler. Tyler had made him believe that there was a chance he would be able to escape, just so he would go even deeper into the mansion and even farther away from everyone, tiring himself greatly in the process.

Several excruciating seconds went by, during which nothing happened. The fact that Tyler was simply playing with him didn't go unnoticed by Freddie, and it made him feel even more helpless and vulnerable. This guy wasn't human - that much was obvious - and in that moment, Freddie somehow knew that he was about to die.

Freddie was suddenly able to make out a blurry figure coming in his direction, but everything happened so fast that he had absolutely no time to react, or even to process what was going on for that matter.

In a moment, Freddie was standing in the middle of the hallway, and in the other, Tyler had grabbed him by his throat and pinned him against the wall with only one hand.

Tyler's hold on Freddie's throat was so strong that he was sure it would kill him in no time at all, and no matter how much strength Freddie put into trying to break free from Tyler's grasp, he just couldn't make himself do it. Tyler was so much stronger than him that it was almost unbelievable, and he didn't even seem to be making any effort at all to hold Freddie still.

"Such an ingenuous little human," Tyler began, smirking. "Did you really think you'd be able to get away from me that easily?" His face had gone back to normal now, but the image of his face turning into the one of a monster seemed to have been craved on the inside of Freddie's eyelids, since every time he blinked, he found himself staring at the face of a killer.

Freddie had no idea how he'd get out of that one, and honestly, he was pretty sure he wouldn't. This guy wasn't simply a lunatic; he was also a murderer, a monster, and there was no way Freddie would be able to get away from him alive.

_What the hell did I get myself into?_

**Sam Puckett**

Sam sighed in defeat as she started making her way up to where Melanie, Ryan, Katelyn and Kyle were.

She had been looking for Freddie for a while now, but there was just absolutely no sign of him anywhere. She was even beginning to think that he had left the party.

She deeply hoped that he hadn't left, since that would only make things even more difficult than they already were. Of course, it wasn't like it would be impossible for her to find him and talk to him again if he had left, but the sooner she found him, the better. She couldn't even imagine how angry he was feeling at the moment, and she wanted to clear things up to him, even if she feared that by explaining everything to him she would probably end up losing him forever.

"Did you find him?" Melanie asked her as soon as Sam reached the other four vampires.

Sam shook her head in response. "There's no sign of him anywhere," she replied, not bothering to hide the frustration in her voice. "I think he might have left."

"Who?" Ryan asked, watching the twins curiously.

Sam hesitated for a moment, before finally answering. "You remember Freddie, right? From Seattle?"

"Isn't he the one you gave the vervain bracelet to last year?" Ryan asked, and Sam nodded in response.

"Wait, are we talking about Maggie's cousin here?" Kyle asked, joining in on the conversation.

"The one and only," Melanie replied.

"Is it bad that I'm completely lost here?" Katelyn asked, clearly annoyed to be the only one who had absolutely no idea what they were all talking about.

"He's a friend of mine from Seattle. We had a fight in the back garden a few minutes ago and now I can't find him anywhere," Sam explained quickly, letting her eyes scan the crowd that surrounded them all for what she guessed was the hundredth in the past twenty minutes.

She was honestly about to give up on trying to find Freddie, when something suddenly caught her eye.

She caught sight of a familiar figure climbing up the staircase that led to the second floor of the mansion, and she instantly felt anger boiling up inside of her.

Tyler.

She couldn't help but think that if Tyler hadn't shown up while she was talking to Freddie, things wouldn't have gone as bad as they had. Of course, she'd probably still have refused to tell Freddie the truth, but maybe he wouldn't have left the party just to get away from her.

Tyler vanished from sight as he climbed up the stairs, and Sam was about to move her gaze away to scan the rest of the room when someone else caught her attention. Another familiar figure was ascending the staircase, apparently following Tyler, and when she realized who the familiar figure was, her heart nearly skipped a beat.

Freddie.

For a moment, her brain refused to process what was obviously going on right in front of her eyes, but she soon let the truth sink in, and when it did, a chill went down her spine.

Freddie probably thought that he'd be able to get some kind of information about her out of Tyler, but he had no idea what he was getting himself into.

There were only two ways this could go on, and neither one of those seemed good in any possible way.

The first one would be Tyler deciding to actually tell Freddie the truth, since he knew very well just how hard that would make things for Sam, and he also knew that would piss Sam off greatly. Sam being the one to tell Freddie the truth would for sure create some issues between them, but things would be a whole lot worse if Freddie learned the truth from someone that wasn't her.

She didn't think that would be the way things would most likely go, though, and that thought made her grow more panicked than she had ever been in her entire life.

She knew very well just what cold, heartless murderers vampires could be, and considering that the vampire in question was Tyler, she was suddenly sure that he'd kill Freddie the first chance he got. The fact that Tyler had decided to go to the second floor of the mansion, where not many people would go, was somewhat solid proof of that. There would be neither witnesses nor someone to stop him, and by the time anyone found out about it, he'd have already gone back to the party, or even left the mansion, and no one would probably have him as a suspect.

That was, if anyone would even find out about it.

Those two lines of thought crossed Sam's mind so quickly that it didn't take longer than two seconds for her feet to start moving. She heard her companions calling out after her, asking her where she was going, but she didn't even bother to look back or respond. Every single moment she lost was precious, since Freddie could die in just a matter of seconds, and he wouldn't even know what had hit him.

And in no time at all, Sam found herself standing in the hallway on the second floor connected the staircase that led to the floor below, trying to decide in which direction she should go.

She had never been a very good tracker, but the seriousness of the situation must have triggered something inside of her, since she suddenly knew that she should go left.

So left she went.

As Sam made her way through several identical looking hallways, she couldn't help but blame herself for what was happening, since she knew that if Tyler actually killed Freddie, it would be no one else's fault but hers. If she hadn't hesitated so much; if she had just told Freddie the truth when she had the chance to, none of this would be happening right now. Freddie wouldn't have felt the need to follow a complete stranger into a place he could easily get lost into and risk his own life in the process without even knowing about it.

Her heart was racing as she made her way past several couples who were just too lost in lip-locking to pay any attention to her, and she couldn't help but wonder if she was even going in the right direction. Even though her instincts were telling her to go that way, she couldn't be a hundred percent sure that way was really the right one.

She tried to avoid those thoughts as she continued walking, refusing to even consider the possibility that she might actually lose Freddie. The single thought of it was just too painful for her to even contemplate it for longer than a second.

But after a few excruciating seconds, Sam finally realized that she was in fact going in the right direction

"_If you really killed her, then how come she's still alive?"_ Sam heard Freddie's voice coming from far away into the hallways, and she instantly paused, closing her eyes in an effort to hear better and try to figure out what direction exactly his voice was coming from. It was a relief to hear his voice; to know that he was still alive and that she could still save him, but she knew that she still needed to hurry up and get to Freddie before Tyler had the chance to do anything.

"_And who told you that she's still alive?"_ Tyler's voice sent a chill down Sam's spine, and she immediately took off in a blur in the direction the sound of his voice had come from.

She paused when she reached an intersection, unsure of which hallway was the right one. She closed her eyes once again, concentrating even harder than before. She couldn't fail, not with something like this.

"_Now, I think that's enough talking, don't you agree? This is getting boring pretty fast."_ Sam's eyes instantly shot open at those words, her heart suddenly racing, since she was pretty sure she knew what Tyler meant by that.

She took off once again, and this time, she was sure that she had finally found them.

She rounded the corner she had believed to be the only thing keeping her away from Freddie and Tyler, but when she got to the next hallway, she found herself standing in the center of a deserted hallway. She eyed her surroundings confusedly, wondering how her instincts could have fooled her like that.

And that was when she heard the sound of someone running.

Even though the floor of the hallways was covered in red, fluffy carpet, she was still able to make out the sound of someone dashing frantically through the corridors, as if running to save their own life. She could hear the person's rapid heartbeat not so far away from where she was, and she suddenly understood what was going on.

Her instincts hadn't fooled her. Tyler and Freddie had indeed been where she was right now, but Tyler had started to hunt Freddie down through the hallways, which wasn't surprising at all. Vampires enjoyed the hunt; simply killing their victims just wasn't thrilling enough.

It took her less than two seconds to actually process that, and in the next moment, she found herself following Freddie's desperate steps, taking off in a blur once again.

And in just a matter of seconds, relief washed over her when she rounded a corner and Freddie and Tyler came into view, but the relief vanished instantly when she realized what Tyler was about to do.

Tyler had Freddie pinned against a wall, holding him by his throat. His veins and fangs were out, which was a clear sign that he was about to kill Freddie without a single thought.

In one second, Sam was standing several feet away from the two, and in the other, she had already grabbed Tyler by his shoulders before he had even had the chance to realize her presence and had pushed him with as much strength as she could gather, which sent him flying across the hallway, before hitting a wall and falling onto the carpet with a low thud.

Sam kneeled down next to Freddie, who had collapsed onto the floor as soon as Tyler had let go of him, his back resting on the wall right behind him for support. Tyler hadn't gotten to the point of biting Freddie, but he had still managed to practically strangle him, which had been enough to make Freddie lose his balance for a moment.

"You okay?" Sam whispered, and Freddie quickly looked up at her, relief clear on his features as soon as his eyes found hers.

Unable to find his voice, Freddie simply nodded in response, before abruptly looking to his side. Sam followed his panicked gaze, only to see that Tyler was already back to his feet and was walking toward the two with a look of pure anger on his face.

Sam was instantly back to her feet as well, her eyes not leaving Tyler for a single second as she glared at him, allowing him to see all the hatred she felt for him in her eyes.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Tyler questioned, pausing and crossing his arms over his chest as he returned her glaring.

"Isn't it obvious?" Sam replied, rolling her eyes at him.

Tyler seemed slightly amused by that. "Let me remind you that I'm thirty years older than you, and that I could easily take you down," Tyler said, but Sam didn't even flinch or stop her glaring.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that if I were you," Sam replied, not sounding afraid of him at all. She didn't care that he was older than her; all she knew was that she was so pissed off at him right now that she didn't think their age really mattered at the moment.

"Well, let's see about that, then," Tyler said, before springing forward in a blur.

Tyler might have been counting on his strength, but he didn't consider the fact that Sam was _fast_. Just as about he was about to grab her by her shoulders and pin her against the wall, she jumped out of the way and grabbed him by his shoulders, throwing him against another wall, but this time, he hit one of the small side tables that were spread through the hallways, breaking it down to pieces around him.

He got to his feet in a second and attacked her once again, but this time, he managed to grab her shoulders and pushed her against the wall, holding her by the throat just like he had done earlier with Freddie.

Sam tried to break free from Tyler's grasp, but he was stronger than her. She might be a lot faster than him, but maybe she wasn't strong enough to beat him in a fight. At least not on her own, anyway.

"Get away from her!" Freddie exclaimed as he hit Tyler in the head with one of the bigger pieces of wood that had once been part of the small table, but that were now scattered around the carpet, breaking it into several smaller pieces.

That obviously wasn't enough to hurt Tyler, but it did manage to distract him for enough time for Sam to make a move.

Sam grabbed Tyler's wrist, the same one connected to the hand that had been holding onto her throat, and managed to twist Tyler's arm behind his back, which made Tyler scream in pain. Sam then pushed him with as much strength as she could gather and hit him against the wall, making a big hole on it.

Tyler fell onto the floor, groaning in pain.

Sam looked up at Freddie and saw him staring at her with wide eyes, shock clear on his features. Well, it seemed like she wouldn't be able to hide the truth from him even if she wanted to now.

But right now, she had something more important to worry about - getting Freddie out of there.

In a blur, she was standing right in front of Freddie. He didn't even have time to process what was going on before Sam held him by his shoulders and took off in a blur, taking him with her.

And in just a matter of seconds, they found themselves standing in another hallway, far away from the one where Tyler was.

"Are you okay?" Sam asked Freddie as soon as she stopped running, but Freddie didn't respond at first. He blinked several times as he looked around, as if trying to understand how they had gotten where they were now.

He somehow made himself nod in response after a moment, but his eyes suddenly widened in surprise as he eyed a spot right behind Sam.

Sam quickly spun around, just in time for her to see Tyler coming in her direction in a blur, but she had not time to react. The next thing she knew was that she felt as if her abdomen had been torn apart, and when she looked down, she saw that Tyler had thrust a remaining piece of wood from the broken table right through her stomach.

Sam felt to her knees with a low groan, her hands holding tightly onto the piece of wood as she felt her blood slipping through her fingers and falling onto the carpet.

"I told you I could take you down," Tyler began, glaring at her. "I'll let you live this time, but don't forget that I've already killed you once, and I could easily do it again."

And with that, he was gone.

"Sam." Sam suddenly heard Freddie's voice coming from behind her, his tone urgent. He was suddenly kneeling right next to her, and she could clearly see the panic on his face as he eyed her apparently lethal wound. "You're gonna be okay. I'm gonna…" Freddie was clearly about to stand up, probably to go call for help, but Sam quickly stopped him.

"Freddie, don't," she said through her gritted teeth. The pain made it hard for her to speak.

"What? Sam, you need-" Freddie was about to argue, but Sam stopped him once again.

"Freddie," she managed to say. "I'm fine."

"No, you're not! Sam, there's a huge-"

"Freddie," Sam repeated, this time looking up at him so she could meet his panicked gaze. "Trust me, please," she pleaded, even though his trust was probably the last thing the should ask him for right now.

Freddie hesitated for a moment, clearly not sure what he should do. One part of him was telling him to go look for help, desperate that he might lose Sam again, and this time, it would be real. But there was another part of him that wanted to believe her, and that also knew that whatever was going on wasn't something that followed any of the rules he was used to.

He sighed in defeat, deciding to do what Sam asked.

Realizing that Freddie didn't intend to go anywhere anymore, Sam focused her attention back on the piece of wood. She held it with both her hands, preparing herself to pull it out of her flesh, when Freddie suddenly held her arm.

"What are you doing?" Freddie asked, his eyes wide with shock.

"I need to pull it out," she said, the pain she was feeling clear in her voice.

"Are you serious?" Freddie asked in disbelief, and Sam simply nodded in response.

Freddie hesitated for a moment, but, much to Sam's surprise, he soon laid his hands over hers, a clear sign that he was willing to help her with it.

"On three," Sam said, before sucking in a deep breath, preparing herself for the pain that was about to come. When Freddie nodded lightly in response, she began the countdown. "One," she whispered. "Two." She felt Freddie tensing up next to her in expectation, and she closed her eyes. "Three."

They both pulled at the same time, and Sam groaned because of the pain, but the piece of wood soon fell onto the carpet, completely covered in Sam's blood.

Sam didn't move for a long moment, trying to calm down her breathing. Freddie didn't say anything; he simply remained by her side, waiting patiently for... Well, whatever he was supposed to wait for.

It took a few seconds, but soon enough, Sam felt the wound beginning to heal. She looked down at it, and so did Freddie. Even though the wound was covered in blood, it wasn't hard to see Sam's skin closing.

After a brief moment of hesitation, Sam made herself look up at Freddie, finally meeting his confused gaze. And that was when he finally voiced the thoughts that had been running through his head since the moment he had first laid his eyes upon her that night.

"What the hell is going on?"

* * *

**Author's Note: Yep, I just _love _cliffhangers XD**

**I wonder how Sam and Freddie's conversation will go... Just fine? Terribly? With an unexpected twist at the end? Who knows? Could things possibly get any messier? And who won't live to see another day? ;)**

**Review! Pretty please? :)**

**xxiCarlyFanxx**


	12. Chapter 12: You're Undead to Me

**Author's Note: First of all, I'd like to thank every single person who left me a review for last chapter. You guys are all so amazing! And you can't even imagine just how happy I was (and still am) because of you. So thank you all so much! It really means the world to me =)**

**(To Moka Shuzen): Thank you so much, dear! =) I gotta say, I'm really curious to read your story if you ever decide to write it and post it! Your ideas sound amazing! I can tell you're very creative, and I'd really love to read your work! =) **

**Disclaimer: I don't own iCarly or The Vampire Diaries.**

**Enjoy! ;D**

* * *

Darkness Times

Chapter 12: You're Undead to Me

**Sam Puckett**

"What the hell is going on?" Freddie's voice was at the same time desperate and urgent.

Sam looked up at him, her crystal blue eyes meeting his deep brown ones, and the confusion and fear she found in those chocolate brown orbs made Sam even more confident about what she'd do next. She couldn't avoid it any longer; this whole Tyler situation had made that pretty much obvious.

"Freddie," Sam started, her voice low, but stopped abruptly when she heard a pair of footsteps approaching them from not too far away. Just then she remembered that they were now a lot closer to the stairs that led to the first floor than they had been before, which meant that they could be interrupted at any second by some unwanted company. Realizing that, Sam quickly changed her mind about what she was about to say. "Come with me," she said, quickly getting back to her feet.

Freddie stood up as well, visibly surprised by the fact that Sam could now stand normally, even if Tyler had literally thrust a piece of wood into her stomach not ten minutes before. "To where?" he asked her, but Sam was already walking, so he quickly followed her.

"I just don't want anyone to hear this," Sam told Freddie as she yanked the door of one of the several rooms around them open, peering inside to make sure that there was no one inside the room before walking in.

Freddie hesitantly followed her inside the room, obviously confused by the sudden change in the blonde's behavior, and when they were both inside, she closed the door shut and locked it.

Sam paused by the door, her hand resting on the doorknob as she hesitated for a moment. She took a deep breath as she tried to steady herself, before finally turning around and making herself meet Freddie's gaze. He was standing a few steps away from her, in the center of the huge room they both now found themselves in, his arms crossed over his chest as he waited impatiently for Sam to finally explain everything to him, which was something she knew she should have done already.

"Freddie, I…" Sam paused, unsure of how to continue that for a moment. She suddenly found it pretty hard to speak, but she somehow made herself continue. "I know you want me to tell you the truth, but I need to ask you something before I tell you anything at all."

Freddie eyed her curiously for a moment, as if processing what he had just heard, before nodding lightly in response without a single word.

Realizing that Freddie wouldn't speak, Sam hesitantly went on. "This is not something simple, and you might not see me the same way ever again after I say what I have to say, so I need to ask you… Are you sure you want to know this?" she asked, trying to read the emotions that crossed Freddie's features. She could tell that he was confused, and also slightly nervous, but above all, he was extremely curious.

"Yes," he replied after a brief moment of hesitation, conviction suddenly taking over his eyes and voice.

Sam took in another deep breath, trying to decide where to start from. She couldn't simply tell him that she was a vampire right away; that would shock and frighten him so much that he might not even want to hear everything else she wanted to say; he might not even give her the chance to explain herself to him. But how was she supposed to do this, then?

Sam noticed Freddie shifting his weight uncomfortably from one leg to the other, and that was when she knew that she couldn't put it off any longer. With her gaze settled on the soft carpet that covered every inch of the floor, since it felt a lot easier to speak if she wasn't looking at Freddie in the eye, she finally made herself speak again, telling a story she had once thought Freddie would never hear.

"One year ago, when I got home from Carly's the night we all came back from college, I could feel there was something wrong, but I just shrugged that bad feeling off at first." She could feel Freddie's intense gaze on her, but she resisted the urge to look up, since she knew it would only make it even more difficult for her to speak than it already was. "But when I walked inside, my mother was acting really weird. She seemed completely desperate when she saw me, but I had no idea why. I didn't even have time to ask her why she was acting like that, though, because Tyler came out of nowhere in a blur and was suddenly holding me still from behind. I tried to break free from his grasp, but I just couldn't, which confused me back then. I mean, it was the first time someone was strong enough to hold me still like that so easy and effortlessly."

Sam could hear Freddie's heartbeat growing faster at each word she said, and she had to pause for a moment as she tried to clear up her thoughts and ignore the sound. The memory of just how amazing his blood had tasted the night she bit him before leaving Seattle suddenly flooded her mind, but she quickly pushed those thoughts away, or else she knew she would lose her grip onto her sanity.

"I somehow knew that whatever he intended to do just couldn't be good, but I had no idea what that was," Sam continued when she was finaly able to make herself somewhat ignore the sound of Freddie's heart beating as it pumped his blood through his veins and arteries. "I could tell my mother knew him somehow, because she kept telling Tyler that I had nothing to do with whatever had been going on in there before I arrived, and she practically begged him to keep me out of it." She made another pause, but this time, her reason to be hesitant was something other than her bloodlust.

Sam was about to tell Freddie something that might already direct him to the truth, and that was the moment she feared the most. She truly dreaded the moment when she'd look into his eyes and see fear take over them, but she knew that there was no turning back now.

"I had no idea what he was back then, but I soon found out that he's a…" She hesitated, taking a deep breath as she gathered up all the courage she had in her to speak. "Vampire," she finally said.

With that, Sam finally made herself look up at Freddie, and her eyes met his just in time to see shock crossing his features. He simply gaped at her for a moment, as if he couldn't believe what he had just heard, and Sam instantly knew that he had already made the connection. He didn't say anything, though, and Sam was glad he didn't, since she knew that it would only make it even more difficult for her to continue if he did.

"Tyler had wanted revenge on my father for years because of something from the past," Sam went on. "It's a really long story, but to summarize it all, my father killed someone Tyler cared about, so Tyler got his revenge the best way he could think of." She made a short pause as she tried to decide how to say what she was about to say. "He..." she started, but found herself hesitating for a moment.

There was actually no need for her to finish that, though, since Freddie had already understood it all.

"Turned you and Melanie into vampires as well," he said, his voice just as low as a whisper.

They were both silent for a moment, their eyes locked in a quiet understanding. After a few seconds, Sam finally made herself nod lightly, giving Freddie all the confirmation he needed to know that what he had probably judged as completely impossible was actually nothing else but the truth.

Freddie opened his mouth to speak, but no sound came out, so he quickly closed it shut once again. He seemed to be at such a state of shock that words had escaped him completely. That wasn't surprising at all, though, considering the kind of information he was clearly struggling to process.

Sam waited patiently for Freddie to say something, unsure of what to do. She wanted to say something; to try to understand what was going through Freddie's head, but she could somehow tell that maybe saying anything at all would only make things even worse than they already were.

And after several painfully dragged on minutes, Freddie finally spoke up again.

"I just… I could have never…" Freddie shook his head lightly, as if trying to clear up his thoughts. "I'm sorry," he said finally.

Sam frowned at him, confused. "For what?" she asked, not sure what he was talking about.

"For… For acting the way I did," he explained, and it was extremely easy for Sam to tell just how hard it was for him to speak at the moment, since he obviously hadn't yet recovered from the shock. "I just… I knew that what made you leave had to be something big, but… I could have never imagined it was something like, well... _this_." Freddie shook his head lightly as he spoke, as if he still couldn't make himself believe what Sam had just told him. "But why did you fake your own death, anyway?" he asked after brief moment of silence.

Sam hesitated for a moment before answering. "It wasn't my idea in the first place," she told him, looking down for a moment. "The night I turned, I was just… so scared and confused because of what had happened, and also so worried about Melanie, that I just… left." She made a short pause as she tried to organize her thoughts. There were just so many reasons behind her departure that she barely knew where to start from. "And when I went back to Seattle a few days later, my mother had already told everyone that I was dead, and I decided it was better to leave things that way."

"How could it have possibly been any better that way?" Freddie asked her in disbelief, his voice suddenly rising a bit, which made Sam look up at him abruptly.

"If my parents had told everyone that I had left, and not that I was dead, you'd all have come after me," she explained.

"And what's so bad about that?" he asked her, disbelief still clear in his voice.

"You wouldn't understand," Sam replied, shaking her head lightly as she looked away from him once again.

"How do you know that?" Freddie asked, his tone urgent as he practically begged her for a better explanation, as if he knew that there was a lot more to that story than she was letting on.

Sam hesitated for a brief moment before answering. "I'd be risking your lives if I had stayed," she finally said, making herself meet his gaze once again, and when she noticed Freddie frowning in confusion at her words, she quickly went on. "When you're new, you have no control over yourself. And it was so easy for me to hurt any of you… I was afraid for everyone's safety."

Freddie eyed her for a moment, as if taking in her words, until he shook his head once again, looking down at the floor. "This is crazy," he finally said.

"I know," Sam agreed, but didn't say anything. What else was there for her to say, anyway?

"But isn't there a way for you to become… human again?" Freddie asked as he looked up at her once again, hesitating before saying the word 'human'. Sam guessed it was still weird for him to think of her as non-human.

"Well, if you find a way to revert death," she said, shrugging lightly.

"But you're not really… dead, are you?" Freddie still sounded pretty hesitant as he spoke.

"Undead might be the right term," Sam replied, and they both fell silent once again. Freddie seemed to be avoiding looking at Sam in the eye, which led Sam to think that he was still having trouble processing what he had just heard. Realizing that, she decided that maybe keeping a conversation going was a better idea than letting the awkward silence that had taken over the room continue. "Why did you come to Jacksonville?" she suddenly broke the silence, asking him the question that had been floating inside her mind since the moment Melanie had told her Freddie was there in that mansion.

Freddie looked up at Sam, clearly startled by the sudden sound of her voice breaking the silence. He hesitated for a moment, as if trying to decide how to respond to that. "I came here to find you," he told her with a light shrug of his shoulders, his voice just as low as a whisper. "I sort of overheard your parents talking a few days ago, and what I heard brought me here." He made a short pause. "I just didn't entirely believe you were still alive until I saw your sister."

Sam was suddenly curious to know what Freddie had heard, since she knew that conversation must had had something to do with how her father had found her and her sister, and that was something she really wanted to know. "What exactly did you hear?" she asked him.

"Well," Freddie began, clearly choosing his words carefully. "Your parents were fighting because your father insisted that he had found Tyler and that he had to come to Jacksonville to make him pay for what he had done, and your mother was sure that he only wanted to come because he had found _them,_" Freddie explained, emphasizing the last word. "I could only assume 'them' meant you and Melanie."

Sam was silent for a moment as she digested Freddie's words, eyeing him carefully. She could somehow tell that there was more to that story than Freddie was willing to tell her at the moment, but she decided to drop it for now, since there was a slightly more important question she needed to ask him. "Does anyone know why you're here?"

Freddie hesitated for a second before answering. "Gibby sort of knows, but he made it pretty clear just how sure he was that I wouldn't find anything here," he told her. "And I told the others that I was coming here to visit a sick relative."

"Freddie," Sam began, her tone suddenly urgent. "You can't tell anyone about any of this."

Freddie frowned at her, as if he couldn't believe what he had just heard. "So you're really planning on living in secret forever?"

"No," Sam quickly replied, but found herself unable to continue. She shook her head, trying to clear up her thoughts, hoping that would somehow help her find the right words to say. "I can't have anyone else know about me," she finally said. "That would only make things even worse."

"And how is letting everyone who cared about you think you're dead any better?" Freddie asked, clearly exasperated.

Honestly, Sam understood where Freddie was coming from, and she had to admit that she probably shouldn't have expected his reaction to be any different from that. But she was also sure about what she was telling him, and she wasn't willing to change her mind so easily.

"You just wouldn't understand," Sam said, sighing.

"It's not like I'm not willing to hear whatever you have to say, is it?" Freddie asked, clearly impatient because of Sam's hesitation.

Sam shook her head lightly. "I just don't want to pull them into all this," she admitted, but that wasn't the main reason why she just refused to reveal herself to the others; that one she'd like to keep to herself for now, since she knew Freddie wouldn't agree with her.

Freddie was taking all that a lot better than she had expected him to, but that didn't mean everyone else would react the same way. She knew they wouldn't, especially not Carly, and Sam wasn't prepared to have everyone she knew be terrified of her for what she had become.

Noticing Freddie's furrowed eyebrows, Sam went on. "Just knowing about any of this is already extremely dangerous for a human, Freddie," she told him, her tone urgent, as if that way she'd be able to get her words through his head. "It's already enough to have you involved; I don't want to risk anyone else's life."

Freddie was silent for a moment, simply eyeing Sam with an unreadable expression on his face. Sam remained silent; simply waiting for him to speak, until she finally lost her patience and broke the silence once again.

"Freddie, please," she whispered, her eyes pleading. "Just give me some time."

Freddie still hesitated for a few more seconds, but he soon gave in with a sigh. "Fine," he said, but it was clear that deep down that was the complete opposite of what he actually wanted to say. "I won't… I won't tell them."

"Thank you," Sam said, obviously relieved, and Freddie simply nodded in response, not saying a word.

Silence took over them once again. The room had suddenly grown extremely awkward, and neither one of them seemed to know what to say. They both had thousands of questions to ask and millions of things to say to each other, but neither of them seemed able to find their voice to do it.

Finally, after a long silent moment, Freddie finally spoke again.

"I'm sorry," he said.

Sam couldn't help but frown at him once again. "Freddie, I get where you're coming from," Sam began, instantly thinking that Freddie was apologizing for his little outburst from just a few seconds before. "I just-" Sam didn't have the chance to finish that, though, since Freddie quickly cut her off.

"Not about that," he told her. "About… Well…" He made a short pause, as if trying to organize his thoughts. "I'm sorry that this happened to you."

Sam nodded lightly in response. "Thank you," she whispered, her voice barely audible.

Freddie simply stared at her for a moment, and he looked as if he was debating something in his head, but Sam had no clue what it could be.

She soon found out what it was, though, since Freddie suddenly took two steps forward, closing the distance there had been between them up until that moment, before wrapping his arms around Sam.

Sam was shocked at first, tensing up abruptly, but as the warmness of Freddie's embrace quickly engulfed her, she let herself melt in his arms, wrapping her own arms around him, while being extremely careful not to put too much strength into the hug, since she knew just how easy it would be for her to crush a few of his bones by accident if she wasn't careful.

She had dreamed with the feeling of his arms wrapped so firmly around her for so long that this seemed almost surreal. The feeling of having him hold her like that was so amazing that if all that was actually just a dream, she certainly never wanted to wake up from it.

"I can't believe you're really here," Freddie whispered into her hair, and Sam smiled at his words.

But as Sam breathed in his sweet scent, she was suddenly reminded of why she had left one year ago. The memories of the night she had bitten Freddie out in the fire escape before she erased his memories came back to her once again as the heat emanating from the skin of his neck started to make Sam's mind grow foggy. She suddenly felt dizzy, as if the room was spinning around her, and the only thing she could focus on was the spot on Freddie's jugular that was barely a few inches away from her mouth.

His heartbeat rang loudly in her ears as she was once again reminded of just how good Freddie's blood tasted, and she suddenly felt her face changing and her canines lengthening. Just a few inches separated her from her own personal heaven…

Sam pulled away from Freddie abruptly, quickly turning around as soon as she was free from his arms in an effort to not let him see her face.

"I gotta go," she told Freddie through her gritted teeth as she quickly made her way over to the door of the room. She needed to get out of there before it was too late. She didn't know how long she'd be able to keep her grip onto her sanity before she completely lost control once again.

In less than two seconds, she had already unlocked the white wooden door and stepped into the hallway.

Sam heard Freddie calling out after her, but she ignored him and took off in a blur without a single glance behind.

**Freddie Benson**

"Sam, wait!" Freddie called after Sam as she practically ran out of the room.

He ran after her, not willing to let her go like this, but when he stepped into the hallway and looked around, he saw no sign of her anywhere. For a brief moment, he considered trying to go after her, but he instantly realized just how pointless that would be. If Sam was as fast as Tyler was, which he was pretty sure she was, she could be on the other side of the mansion by now.

Freddie sighed, supporting his back on a nearby wall, since he felt as if his knees would give out right under him at any second as everything he had just found out dawned upon him.

Sam was a vampire.

A _vampire._

That thought seemed so unreal and insane it was practically impossible to believe it, but impossible or not, it was still true. Sam had indeed died one year ago, but she wasn't exactly gone; she had actually been living in secret among the living during that whole time.

He shook his head, trying to wrap his mind around that idea, but he found himself unable to do it right; his brain just seemed incapable of processing something like that.

Freddie had never been a believer. For him, nothing that couldn't be rationally explained could be true, so it was no wonder why he was so shocked. The knowledge that vampires were actually real, and that the girl he had fallen in love with, of all people, had turned into one, was just too much for him. Adding that to the similarity between the truth and the dream he had been having on repeat for the past few months, he honestly had no idea what to even think in that moment.

If Sam had simply told him the truth, he might not have believed her. But after being attacked by Tyler, seeing his face change and his fangs come out, witnessing just how strong and fast both Tyler and Sam were and watching the wound in Sam's stomach healing inhumanly fast, all of that with his own eyes, what other choice did he have other than to simply believe everything Sam had told him?

He looked over to the end of the hallway, just now realizing that he could faintly hear the music playing downstairs, which made him realize that he was probably pretty close to the staircase that led to the first floor. Sam had apparently tried to bring him as close to the party as she could in order to get away from Tyler.

Freddie couldn't help but wonder where she had gone. There had been so much going on in his head; so many questions flooded his mind while they talked, but he just couldn't make himself voice any of them, and now, he had lost his chance to ask her any of those.

And what if he never got to see her again?

That thought sent some sort of desperate feeling through him.

Even though being able to actually hold Sam in his arms like that had been the best thing that had happened to him in the past whole year, he now regretted simply pulling her into a hug like that, but he wasn't sure why that had caused Sam to suddenly run off like that. Had he freaked her out? Or was it something else? Had that been about what he had said earlier? About him telling everyone else about her secret? Or maybe even something else entirely?

It had all just happened so fast that he only realized what was going on when Sam had already yanked the door open, and in the next moment, she was already gone. He had been so lost in the amazing feeling of finally being able to hold her in his arms again that he didn't even have the chance to stop her before she was gone.

Freddie shook his head. He couldn't let her get away like this. He couldn't risk never seeing her again.

He felt as if what Sam had told him hadn't entirely sunk in yet, and he couldn't help but ignore the little voice in the back of his head that kept telling him to just hop on a plane and go back to Seattle as fast as he could, since the rational part of him knew that getting involved with vampires wasn't a very good idea, just like Sam had told him it wasn't. The other part of him - the one that had ached for Sam during every single second that had gone by after hearing what had truly been the worst news he'd received in his whole life - wasn't willing to just give up so easily. That part of him didn't want let Sam go like that, even though he knew just how dangerous this whole thing might turn out to be.

The second part of him won, causing Freddie to decide to simply ignore the rational part of himself for now, which wasn't something he did very often. He couldn't help it, though; the thought that he had actually found Sam was so overwhelming that it blinded him to the danger of the situation.

When he was finally able to make himself stand normally without any kind of support, Freddie began to walk down the hallway, following the sound of the music, and in a little over a minute, he found himself walking toward the marble staircase he had climbed up just a few minutes ago.

One single thought had taken over his mind, and he was suddenly determined to follow it.

He had to find Sam.

**Sam Puckett**

Sam took a long sip from the cup she was holding, before resting it back on the table right in front of her.

She closed her eyes for a moment at the feeling of the alcohol going down her throat as she swallowed her drink, and after a few seconds, the hunger seemed to begin to quiet down a bit, but she still felt like tearing someone's throat open with her fangs at any second.

The wound in her stomach was completely healed now, but that ended up taking some of her strength, and in consequence, she suddenly felt hungry. As if that wasn't already enough, she hadn't fed in over five hours and had been way too close to biting Freddie just a few minutes ago, which all added up to create a pretty explosive mixture, and Sam was quite sure that would lead to someone not surviving to see the next day if she wasn't careful.

"Nice jacket."

Sam quickly looked up, only to find her sister taking a seat across from her at the table, eyeing her curiously.

"Long story," Sam told her as she took another sip of her drink.

On her way back to the first floor of the mansion, she had stopped by a few empty rooms, and much to her relief, she had found a closet full of several pieces of clothing in one of those. She quickly grabbed a black leather jacket from there and put it on to try to cover the upper part of her body as she tried to hide the blood stained fabric of her dress in the area of her stomach, which was where Tyler had thrust the piece of wood. Fortunately, the jacket covered the blood stain perfectly.

"Let's just say that I didn't think it was a good idea to show up down here covered in blood." Sam's tone was low enough for only her sister to be able to hear what she was saying.

Melanie's eyes widened for a second at her sister's words, but she quickly hid her shock. "What happened?" she asked quickly, her voice suddenly urgent, but just as low as Sam's.

"Tyler," Sam said simply, before sipping her drink once again.

Melanie shook her head at that, as if she couldn't believe what the other twin had just told her, even though she didn't seem exactly surprised. "What did he do this time?" she asked, annoyance clear in her voice.

"He tried to kill Freddie, and I ended up with a piece of wood drawn into my stomach," Sam explained, her voice even lower than before as she brought her cup back up to her lips. The hunger was still there, but at each sip she took, she seemed to regain a little more control over herself.

"That bastard," Melanie swore under her breath, shaking her head lightly in disbelief once again.

They were both silent for a moment, until Melanie suddenly broke the silence.

"So," she began, her voice somewhat hesitant. "How did it go?" There was no need for Melanie to specify what she was talking about.

Sam shrugged lightly in response, placing her cup back on the table. "Better than I expected, I guess," she told her sister. "He didn't run away in fear or called a mental hospital to pick me up, and I'm guessing that's a pretty good sign."

"Well, then why do you look so sad while sitting down here all by yourself?" Melanie asked her sister, raising a knowing eyebrow as she spoke, which clearly said that she knew there was more to it than Sam was telling her.

It still surprised Sam sometimes how Melanie got her so easily. People always said that identical twins had some sort of connection, but she had never really believed in that until about a year ago, when they actually began to see each other every day and have some kind of a healthy sister-sister relationship. And even though Ryan was her brother, no one seemed to know what was going through her head so well like Melanie did.

"I just…" Sam shook her head lightly. "I just wish things were easier."

"Uh… Okay, what happened with Freddie?" Melanie asked, clearly annoyed that her sister simply refused to go straight to the point. "If he accepted it well, then how can you want things to be easier?"

"I almost bit him again," Sam said finally, her eyes focused on the cup resting on the table right on front of her.

"Oh…" Melanie's face instantly dropped. "Well, at least you didn't get that far this time, right?"

Sam chuckled humorlessly. "Well, I took off before that could happen. But still…" She sighed. "I thought I was stronger than that, you know?"

It was true; Sam had indeed thought that she had finally learned to control her instincts. She had thought that she knew how to resist the urges and keep her murderous side under control, but now she could see just how wrong she had been to think that. Even after a whole year of being a vampire, she still had just as much control as she had the night she bit Freddie out in his fire escape and had to erase his memories because of it.

"Sam, we're still new," Melanie told her, her tone calm as she obviously tried to make her sister feel at least a tiny bit better. "It's normal for us not to have that much control over ourselves. Even Ryan still has some trouble with it sometimes."

"I know that, but…" Sam shook her head, looking up at her sister once again.

The truth was that she had actually, even if deep down she knew she shouldn't have, started to build up some hope about her and Freddie once again. The fact that he hadn't run away in fear was already a good sign, which had made Sam believe that when the initial shock finally wore off, they'd possibly be friends again, and maybe, if she was lucky enough, that could grow into something else; something she had dreamed with for the past three years.

But now, with her lack of control just as intense as before, how could that ever be possible? Being so near Freddie seemed to trigger something inside of her; something so much stronger than her. How could she risk his life like that? She'd never forgive herself if she ever hurt him again.

"Sam," Melanie began, suddenly breaking Sam out of her troubled thoughts. "Listen, I know what you're thinking. But…" She sighed, as if struggling to put her thoughts into words. "You were hurt, and that took a lot of you. Now you're hungry, and you and I both know how on the edge that gets you." Sam had to admit that Melanie indeed had a point, but that still wasn't enough to entirely convince her. Probably realizing that, Melanie quickly went on. "What happened might not even mean anything. Don't give up on yourself like this."

Sam shook her head. "It's easy for you to say. You don't have to worry about killing Kyle during every single moment you're with him, do you?" Sam couldn't stop the words before they left her mouth.

Melanie looked surprised for a moment, but she instantly covered it up with annoyance. "Would you stop with the comments about me and Kyle? We're just friends, nothing else!"

Sam shrugged lightly in response, amused by her sister's sudden defensive behavior. "Whatever you say," Sam said, smirking, and Melanie simply rolled her eyes and looked away, scanning the crowd for a moment, clearly desperate to change the conversation's subject.

"So what are you gonna do about Freddie?" Melanie asked, turning back on her chair so she could look at her sister in the eye.

Sam shrugged once again. "Honestly, I have no idea," she admitted, sighing in defeat.

It was true; she had no idea what she should do about all that.

She knew Freddie well enough to know that now that he had found her, he wouldn't want to lose her from sight, or at least not anytime soon.

It did cross her mind that she could make him forget once again. She could send him right back to Seattle, all the memories of what he had seen and heard there in Jacksonville completely gone from his mind and with the single knowledge that he had spent a few days with his cousin in his head. Maybe that would be the best thing to do in Sam's situation, since that would make sure Freddie would stay away from anything that had to do with the supernatural, which would keep him relatively safe, but Sam just refused to let herself do that to him again. Messing with Freddie's mind wasn't something she was willing to do again.

But what was she supposed to do, then? She couldn't simply vanish again; not now that Freddie already knew the truth. She was sure he'd find her somehow, no matter where she went, and he would probably even risk his own life in the process if he had to, just like he had done earlier that same night.

The only option all that left her with was to continue seeing him; to answer all the questions she knew he was craving answers for and to ask him her own. And even though she was aware of just how dangerous all that was, the thought that she'd keep seeing him didn't fail to bring a small smile to her lips.

And that was when she made another decision. She'd do everything she could to learn to control herself around him. She'd learn to keep the killer residing inside of her under control, and maybe Freddie's presence might be just what she needed to be able to do that.

A sound coming from far, far away suddenly reached Sam's ears, apparently coming from the floor above. It sounded like a desperate, glass-shattering scream, but the music masked the sound so much Sam doubted any human had heard it.

Sam quickly looked up at her sister, who had a confused look on her face, and Sam instantly knew she had heard it too.

"You heard that, right?" Sam asked, and Melanie nodded in response.

They both ran their eyes over the crowd that surrounded them, but apparently, no one had heard anything.

The twins looked back at each other, identical questioning looks on their faces.

"Should we…?" Melanie began, but didn't finish as she let her voice hang in the air. There was no need for her to continue that, though, since Sam knew Melanie had the exact same question she had in mind.

Before Sam could answer that, though, another sound reached their ears. It was another scream, this one just as desperate as the previous one, but it was easy to tell that this one belonged to a completely different person. The first person to scream had clearly been a female, while the second one had been obviously a male.

Even if they hadn't been able to hear the screams so well, they could still tell that whoever had made those sounds was completely terrified, and they both could only jump to one conclusion based on that.

Tyler.

Of course, they both knew that they had absolutely nothing to do with what he did, and it wasn't like they cared anyway, but if he went on a killing spree in a mansion filled with hundreds of people, many of which either famous or insanely rich, and for some reason, he was discovered, that could have pretty disastrous consequences to any other vampire in there, not only Tyler. The least attention they called upon themselves, the better.

Sam nodded lightly as she brought her cup back up to her lips and drank down its whole content at once, before placing it back onto the table with a low thud.

"Let's go," Sam said, standing up from her chair, and her sister quickly did the same.

They both then started making their way through the crowd and toward the marble staircase not many steps away from where they were, already dreading what they might find waiting for them on the floor above.

**Jorge Puckett**

Jorge scanned the face of every single person who walked past him as he slowly made his way toward the nearest exit of the mansion he could find, afraid that he might end up running into one of his children as he made his way through the crowd.

He had already been in that party for longer than he thought he should, and even though he hadn't yet seen the one daughter he had been worried about the most, he had come to the conclusion that it would be better for him to leave the party before any of his children saw him, since he just didn't feel ready to talk to any of the three vampires just yet, so meeting them in that party was surely not on his plans.

He had pretty much convinced himself that Sam probably wasn't even there to begin with. He just refused to think that something might have happened to her during the past year, since that thought was truly unbearable. Telling himself that she had probably just not attended to the party wasn't as painful as contemplating the possibility that Sam might not have made it as a vampire, even though the odds of something like that happening had obviously been on Melanie. He was aware of the fact that being a vampire wasn't exactly something safe, considering just how many vampire hunters there were out there in the world, and he had been truly worried about his daughters' safety during the past twelve months.

But just as he began making his way toward the unbelievably big wooden doors he had walked through when he'd first gotten to the mansion, something caught his eye.

There was an extremely familiar girl sitting alone at a table by the corner of the room, her crystal blue eyes focused on the cup resting on the table right in front of her with a somewhat thoughtful expression on her face and her blonde curls falling over her shoulders in a golden cascade, which covered most of the leather jacket she was wearing over her blue dress.

Sam.

Jorge suddenly felt as if an enormous weight had been lifted off his shoulders the moment he saw her. He had already seen Melanie, but there had been no sign of Sam anywhere, and now that he was finally seeing her with his own eyes, he felt relieved to know that she was fine was well.

He watched her for a moment, and he was instantly able to tell that there was something bothering her. He briefly wondered what that could possibly be, until he spotted her sister walking toward her and joining her at the table. The two twins talked for a few minutes, and for a moment, Jorge couldn't stop a smile from forming on his lips.

They were fine.

Jorge watched them for some time, until he suddenly remembered what he had been doing before he'd caught sight of Sam. Casting one last look in the direction of his daughters, he was about to turn around and resume making his way toward the exit, when he noticed a sudden change of mood in the two girls' conversation.

He watched as Sam and Melanie exchanged an at the same time confused and worried look, and his heart began racing inside his chest when Sam and Melanie let their eyes briefly scan the crowd of people nearby. They didn't seem to have noticed Jorge watching them from the distance, though, and he was glad they hadn't.

The twins suddenly stood up from their chairs and began making their way through the crowd as they cast a few worried glances at everyone around them. They soon got to the staircase that led to the floor above, and in just a matter of seconds, they vanished from sight as they climbed up the stairs to the second floor.

Jorge simply stood there for a moment, staring curiously at the spot where the two vampires had just vanished. There was obviously something worrying them, but Jorge had no idea what that could be. He thought about it for a moment, but he soon realized it was pointless for him to try to figure it out.

Letting out a sigh, he let his eyes wander over the crowd one last time, when he spotted two other familiar figures walking toward the exact same staircase Sam and Melanie had just climbed up. Ryan, Katelyn and a young man with black hair and blue eyes whom Jorge had never seen before – and whom he could only assume was also a vampire – had a similar worried look to the one Sam and Melanie had had on their faces as they also vanished from sight after climbing up the stairs to the second floor of the mansion.

Something was wrong.

Jorge could easily tell that much, but he had no idea what exactly was going on. He hesitated for a moment, suddenly conflicted. He wouldn't be able to leave the party now; not after what he had just seen and with the doubt of what was going on up there on the floor above.

It took him a little over a minute to finally come to a decision on what to do, and when that finally happened, he began making his way over to the marble staircase.

He just had no idea what would happen when he reached the second floor.

* * *

**Author's Note: So there you have it! Freddie finally knows the truth! =D But will Sam's vampirism ever allow Sam and Freddie to be together? Hehe ;)**

**Review! ;D**

**xxiCarlyFanxx**


	13. Chapter 13: Friday Night Bites

**Author's Note: *raises white flag* Okay, first of all, I'd like to apologize and explain myself. **

**I know many of you might have thought I had given up on writing or something of the sort, since I pretty much vanished for months (in less than two weeks, it would be one year since the last update of this story), but I actually have an excuse for this lack of updates. Last year was just extremely troubled for me for personal reasons, and I really had no time at all for writing. I'm so sorry to keep you all waiting like this, but I had no other choice, since I had close to no free time at all throughout the entire last year. Now, however, my life is pretty much back to normal, so I can finally write again. ;)**

**For those of you who have stuck around: thank you all so much for your patience! You have no idea how happy it makes me to know that you have not given up on me. I hope this chapter makes up for the long wait. =)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own iCarly or The Vampire Diaries!**

**Enjoy! ;)**

* * *

Darkness Times

Chapter 13: Friday Night Bites

**Freddie Benson**

Freddie had looked everywhere he could think of—the garden, the bar and even the supposedly 'forbidden for anyone who didn't live in the mansion' rooms by the main marble staircase—but there was no sign of Sam anywhere.

He was already beginning to think that she had left the party, but that thought wasn't enough to make him give up on looking for her. He was determined to find her, even if he had to check every single inch of that mansion over a hundred times; even if he had to stay in that place until the sun rose in the horizon and there was barely anyone conscious left, for he was sure that it was just a matter of a few hours until most people passed out due to the impossibly large amount of alcohol they'd ingested.

He still didn't quite understand why Sam had freaked out so much like she did when he hugged her. Did it have something to do with her being a vampire? Or was it something else? He couldn't know for sure, and he knew from several past experiences that trying to figure Sam out on his own like that wouldn't get him anywhere, but all those doubts still intrigued him greatly.

Freddie scanned the crowd around him, but once again, he saw no sign of Sam anywhere. Instead of finding the blonde girl he wished to talk to so dearly, he caught sight of a familiar brown-haired young woman making her way through the crowd toward him, constantly losing her balance as she did so, but she didn't seem to have noticed him until she bumped right into him.

"Freddi-o!" Maggie greeted him a little too happily, smiling widely at him. "Whatssup?"

"Don't you think you've already had enough to drink, Meg?" Freddie asked his cousin, eyeing the half-full cup she was holding in her right hand as he briefly wondered how many of those she had already had so far.

"Don't be a party killer!" she told him, tripping a bit on the words, before raising her cup up to her lips and taking a long sip from it. "I'm just having fun!"

Freddie shook his head lightly at her. "Just please try not to put yourself into a coma, okay?" he pleaded, honestly worried about how much alcohol she had already ingested.

She waved her hand at him, shaking her head lightly, as if trying to make her drunken state not seem like such a big deal. "Yeah, yeah," she said, rolling her eyes at him. "Just go after your girl and let me live a little, would ya?"

"What are you talking about?" Freddie asked, frowning at her. How could she possibly know about Sam?

Maggie let out a way too loud laugh. "Don't even try to deny it," she told him, raising her index finger, as if telling him to be quiet. "I saw the way you kept staring at Kyle's friend. It's Meredith, right? Yeah, I think that's it." She swallowed the rest of the contents of her cup all at once. "I'd better go get more of this," she announced, gesturing to the now empty cup she was holding. And with that, she turned on her heel and vanished into the crowd before Freddie even had the chance say anything about her little comment.

Freddie couldn't help but shake his head at his drunk cousin one more time, but he knew that arguing with her right now wouldn't be a good idea, and she probably wouldn't even remember any of it the next day, anyway.

Sending all those thoughts away for the time being, Freddie then focused his mind back on his current task—finding Sam.

Scanning the crowd with his eyes once more, he resumed his search for the blond-haired vampire, but at each minute that passed, he began to grow even surer that he wouldn't find her anywhere.

**Jorge Puckett**

Jorge looked around nervously, not sure if he really should be where he was right now.

He was still not sure how he had ended up walking through a completely deserted hallway on the second floor of the Farx mansion, his heart racing inside his chest. He had no idea what he had expected to find up there in the first place, and he was honestly beginning to think that there was actually nothing to be found there to begin with. There was no sign of any of the vampires anywhere, and for some reason, following them all up there didn't seem like such a good idea anymore.

What was he even expecting to do if he did come across any of them, anyway? It wasn't like felt ready to talk to them just yet, so what was it that had driven him to simply forget about his nervousness and hesitation to come face-to-face with his children like that, even if for just a moment?

_Parental worry,_ the answer popped up in his mind instantly. Just because Sam, Melanie and Ryan were all vampires now, that didn't mean that he wasn't their father anymore. They had all looked pretty worried about something that was probably happening up there, even though Jorge had absolutely no idea what could have gotten three vampires—five, if you counted the other two—so worried. He was just concerned about their safety, even though he knew he probably shouldn't. They were vampires, which meant that they could take care of themselves pretty well, probably even better if he didn't get himself involved with whatever was going on up there.

It didn't take Jorge long to realize what a foolish idea it had been go up there, and even though curiosity still welled up inside of him, eating away every single one of his thoughts, he decided that maybe it would be better for everyone if he didn't get in the middle of whatever was going on with all the vampires.

As that last train of thought crossed his mind, Jorge paused, shaking his head at just how reckless going up there without a second thought had been. But just as he was about to turn around and begin making his way back to the first floor and then out of that mansion, telling himself that he should leave before he did anything stupid and that he would for sure regret later, something made him freeze on his spot.

A blonde girl came into view in the end of the hallway, running in his direction with a desperate expression on her face. The girl was obviously running away from someone, but the sight of Jorge standing in the center of the hallway made her stop dead in her tracks, her dark brown eyes wide with evident fear.

What really caught Jorge's attention, however, wasn't the clear fear and despair in the unknown girl's eyes, but the fact that the right side of her neck was completely covered in blood, the dark crimson liquid contrasting against her pale skin. At the sight of the bloody bite mark, a thought quickly popped up inside Jorge's head, and he instantly understood where the girl's fear was coming from.

Vampire bite.

For a moment, Jorge wondered who had bitten her. Counting his three children, Ryan's girlfriend, Tyler and the dark-haired young man he had spotted with Ryan and Katelyn earlier, he could count six vampires in that mansion. That was, if there weren't any others he wasn't aware of.

But… would any of his children do something like this?

_They're vampires, so why wouldn't they? _That thought slipped into Jorge's mind before he even had the chance to stop it. What if… what if it was true? What if it had indeed been Sam or Melanie or Ryan who had bitten this girl? It was possible, Jorge couldn't deny it.

_Killing people is pretty much their basic nature now, _a voice in the back of his head reminded him.

Jorge shook his head, desperately trying to push all those thoughts away. They were just too painful for him to bear, even though he knew he wouldn't be able to ignore them forever, just like he had been trying to do for the past whole year.

"Hey," Jorge spoke in a low voice, his arms stood out in front of him as he tried to show the clearly frightened girl that he wouldn't hurt her. "I'm not going to hurt you," he told her in the calmest tone he could muster, but that didn't seem enough to convince the girl that he was actually no threat to her. "What happened to you?"

The girl didn't respond; she simply shook her head at him, her eyes still wide with fear.

"Who are you running from?" Jorge tried once again, but the girl still refused to speak. She had her mouth open and looked as if she was actually trying to say something, but no sound escaped her lips, as though she had literally lost her voice.

"Well, well," a familiar voice made Jorge suddenly look up, only to find Tyler approaching the two of them, coming from the same direction the girl had come from barely a few seconds ago. "Look who just doesn't seem to get tired of me."

Jorge had to admit that he felt slightly relieved when he caught sight of Tyler, since that meant that neither one of his children was the vampire who had fed on the poor innocent girl and had left her so frightened and desperate, even though meeting Tyler in a deserted hallway like that one should probably create the exact opposite feeling in any sane human being.

At the sight of Tyler, the girl took off running, hurrying right past Jorge, probably intending to get away from her deadly pursuer. She didn't have the chance to go too far, though, since Tyler was suddenly standing right in front of her, moving in a flash and blocking the way, as though he had simply materialized himself right before the blonde.

_"Don't move,"_ he told the girl, obviously using mind-compulsion, before turning his attention back to Jorge, who was secretly wondering his chances of successfully managing to get his gun out of his belt without getting himself killed in the process.

Jorge knew that at the slightest movement he made, Tyler would kill him, especially if he figured out what Jorge had in mind, but he also knew that if he didn't do something quickly, Tyler would kill both him and the girl without a single thought. He had to do something about that, but he needed to wait for the right moment to do it.

"What the hell are you doing?" Jorge asked, his tone cold and accusing as he finally managed to tear his eyes away from the poor defenseless girl, only to focus them on the green-eyed vampire.

Tyler chuckled, his usually extremely bright teeth stained with blood, just like the skin around his mouth and of his chin. "What do you _think_ I'm doing?" he asked, sounding slightly amused.

Jorge shook his head. "You know, for one brief moment I had thought that maybe there was some humanity left in you after what you told me earlier today about your sister," he started. Tyler frowned slightly at his words, but he didn't say anything, his face suddenly growing completely emotionless. "When you told me that I shouldn't blame her for Ryan's death," he went on, trying to make what he was trying to say clearer. "But now I can see just how wrong I was about that."

Tyler shook his head lightly, the amusement that had been clear in his eyes just a few seconds ago now long since gone. "Trying to find some humanity left in a vampire," he began, shaking his head lightly from one side to the other, "How foolish of you." He simply eyed Jorge curiously for a moment, before asking, "Is that why you haven't driven a stake through your daughters' hearts yet? Or through your son's? Because you think that there could possibly be a tiny bit of humanity left in them?"

"They're not you, Tyler," Jorge said without any hesitation, even though he still wasn't entirely confident about what he was saying. He just refused to believe that any of his children had become murderers like the vampire standing right in front of him, even though he knew he couldn't be entirely sure that they hadn't.

Tyler raised his eyebrows at those words. "Really?" he asked, smirking a little. "You seem to know a lot for someone who just saw them again after so long." Jorge remained quiet, simply glaring at Tyler as he tried to find a way to respond to that, but he found none. Noticing that, Tyler hurried to add, "I mean, do you really think that they haven't killed anyone since they turned?" Yet again, his words met nothing but silence in response. "Okay, I know that Ryan and Melanie's lists of victims might not be very long, but Sam is a whole different story."

That truly caught Jorge's attention, and for a moment, he wasn't able to hide his surprise. Could Tyler really be telling the truth? Or was he just playing with the human's mind? Jorge tried to tell himself not to trust even a single word that left the green-eyed vampire's mouth, but there was a part of him that was still terrified that what he was hearing might actually be true.

"She's a quick learner, that one," Tyler went on, clearly content with the fact that Jorge seemed to have been greatly affected by his words. "She learned how to play the strings in just a matter of days. And I must say, I was kind of impressed." The smirk was suddenly back in his features as he added, "The list just kept growing and growing."

Jorge looked down, shaking his head lightly from side to side. Tyler was lying; he had to be. "No," he finally said. "Sam would never do that."

Tyler chuckled at that. "Well, believe what you want," he said, shrugging, and without any kind of warning, his face suddenly changed, earning the features that haunted every single one of Jorge's nightmares as a low snarl escaped the vampire's lips. And before Jorge could even process what was happening, Tyler drove his fangs into the girl's neck.

Jorge saw that as the chance he had been waiting for, so he quickly wrapped his hand around the back of his gun and pulled it out, ready to fire, since he didn't need to worry about the sound of the shot, considering that his gun had a suppressor.

It only took him about three seconds until he was already pointing the gun at the spot where Tyler and the girl had been standing the moment he had torn his gaze away from the pair, but much to his surprise, Jorge found himself staring at the lifeless body of the girl lying on the carpet, while Tyler was nowhere in sight.

The gun was suddenly slapped out of his hands, and before he could even process what was going on, an incredibly strong hand had closed around his throat and Jorge suddenly found himself pinned against the wall.

"Nice try," Tyler said, his mouth completely covered in fresh blood, though his face was now back to normal. "You know, I would have let you live if you had just given up on trying to play the hero when you had the chance," he began, his grip around Jorge's neck so tight that the vampire hunter was sure he'd suffocate in just a matter of seconds, "But you're not making that very easy for me, and honestly, I'm already tired of this."

Tyler's face changed once again, and for a moment, Jorge thought that Tyler was about to bite him. That was actually what Jorge was hoping for, since he had been drinking vervain from the small stash Matthew had given him the day he'd arrived in Jacksonville, and if Tyler drank his blood, he'd be weakened, which would enable Jorge to stake him. But when Tyler's face suddenly went back to normal, he realized that he shouldn't have kept his hopes up so high.

"Did you really think I'd be stupid enough to bite you?" Tyler asked, sounding slightly amused. "I know that's exactly what you want, since you're probably on vervain."

Tyler suddenly let go of Jorge's throat, but just for the two seconds it took him to break one of the doors just a few steps away from him in a blur and go back to where Jorge was still gasping for air. Tyler's iron grip around Jorge's throat was suddenly back, and with it, came the feeling that his abdomen had been torn apart.

Jorge looked down and realized that Tyler had driven a sharp wooden piece from the door right into his stomach.

And that was when he knew that he'd die.

**Sam Puckett**

"Do you hear anything?" Melanie asked Sam as the two vampires made their way through the hallways, trying to find whoever had screamed just a few minutes ago, but there was no sign of anyone anywhere so deep into the hallways.

"No," Sam said, shaking her head lightly in response.

"Me neither," Melanie replied, her frustration clear in her voice. They had already been walking through the maze of hallways for nearly twenty minutes now, but they had found absolutely nothing out of the ordinary in any of those hallways. "Maybe it didn't come from this side of the mansion…" Melanie's voice trailed off as she eyed the dozens of doors in the hallway curiously, as if expecting someone to suddenly push one of those open and run out of one of the rooms in a somewhat panicked state, which would obviously make the twins' search a lot easier.

They walked for a few more minutes, but they still didn't find anything interesting or out of the ordinary. They were about to just give up, go back to the party and forget about the scream they had heard, since there was apparently no point in continuing their search for whoever had let out that frightened scream, when Sam suddenly froze, clearly tensing up.

"What happened?" Melanie asked, her voice urgent, pausing as well as she eyed her sister with a suddenly worried expression on her face. "Did you hear anything?" Melanie instantly began to concentrate on the sounds around them in an effort to try to hear whatever had made her sister freeze like that without any sort of warning, but she heard nothing relevant. The loud music playing on the floor below made her unable to trust her vampire-hearing completely, however, for it masked most sounds around the pair.

"Do you smell that?" Sam asked simply as she stared right ahead, her gaze settling deep into the deserted hallway, as though trying to see something in the distance.

Melanie frowned and briefly sniffed the air around them, just then picking up an all too familiar scent lingering in the air as it finally reached her nostrils, and the reason for Sam's suddenly tensing up was instantly obvious.

"Blood," they whispered in unison.

Sam suddenly began to feel pretty lightheaded, and she had to fight the urge to simply take off in a blur toward the source of the delicious and mouthwatering smell. "It's coming from down the hall," she said in the calmest tone she could muster at the moment as she tried to hide her sudden internal struggle from her sister.

Melanie didn't say anything in response; she simply nodded as she began making her way down the hallway. Sam gladly followed her, the thought that at each second that passed the distance between her and the source of that sweet smell got smaller making it hard for her to keep a steady pace, and she found herself having to be careful not to take off running right past her sister so she could get there first, which was exactly what every cell of her body was telling her to do.

They soon realized that the smell was coming from inside one of the rooms to their right, so they paused in front of the door of the room, staring at the closed wooden door that blocked their view of whatever awaited the pair inside of it. Before Sam could stop herself, she grabbed the doorknob and turned it, quickly pushing the door open.

The lights inside the room were on, but that wasn't what really caught Sam and Melanie's attention, for it took barely a second for their gazes to fall upon the man lying on the bed. He was probably in his early twenties, and he was obviously dead, since they couldn't hear his heart beating or the sound of him breathing at all. He had a bloody bite mark on his neck, the dark, crimson liquid staining the previously white pillow placed right under the man's head.

At the sight, Sam's mind ceased functioning rationally. Before she could even do anything about it, she had already flown to his throat, her fangs digging into the dead man's flesh, only to find out that there was still a small amount of blood in his veins. Sam felt her strength growing at each mouthful she swallowed, the feeling of the man's still slightly warm blood making its way down her throat so good she wished it would never stop…

Sam suddenly felt her back hit a wall, and it took her a few seconds to actually process what was going on and what she had just done. Her sister had her pinned against one of the walls in the room, her brows furrowed in confusion.

"What's gotten into you today?" Melanie asked, but it took Sam a brief moment to be able to respond to that.

"I'm sorry, I'm just…" Sam shook her head lightly, trying to clear up her highly incoherent thoughts. "I'm just really on edge right now."

"What are you two doing up here?"

The twins quickly looked over to the door of the room, only to find Kyle watching them curiously, his arms crossed over his chest as he leaned against the doorframe.

Melanie let her arms fall to her sides and leaned away from her sister before responding to that. "We heard a scream and wanted to check if something was going on up here," she told him, shrugging lightly.

"You heard it too?" Kyle asked, and the two twins nodded in response.

"But what are _you_ doing here?" Sam asked, leaning away from the wall as she tried to wipe her chin clean with the back of her hand, since she could feel there was some blood there, staining her skin and giving away her lack of self-control to anyone who saw it.

Kyle pointed at the dead young man on the bed. "I came to get him," he said as he began making his way over to the bed. He ignored the confused looks the two twins were giving him as he effortlessly threw the body of the man over his right shoulder. "Ryan, Katelyn and I are rounding up all the bodies we can find before anyone else does," he explained finally, shrugging lightly, as if it wasn't such a big deal.

"Wait, so there are more?" Melanie asked, clearly surprised.

"Several more," Kyle told them. "Apparently, Tyler went on a killing spree." He looked over at the bed. "Hey, would any of you grab those pillows?" he asked, pointing at the bed. "I don't think leaving bloodstained pillows here would be a good idea."

Melanie quickly did as Kyle asked, gathering the two pillows from the bed, but Sam didn't dare to move from where she was standing, judging it as a very bad idea for her to be too near all that blood again.

As the three vampires began making their way out of the room, Sam spoke up, trying to keep a conversation going in an effort to get her mind off the scent of blood that had impregnated the air around them. "So Tyler simply abandoned all the bodies like this one?" she asked.

"Yeah, pretty much," Kyle replied. "They're all scattered around the mansion in several rooms, and I don't think he had any intention of cleaning this mess up later on."

"Well, that's very careless of him," Melanie commented.

"I don't really think he cares much about anything right now," Sam said as her mind seemed to have finally cleared up, and Tyler's little killing spree suddenly made sense to her. "He's probably pissed at me, and you know just how careless a pissed vampire can be."

It made perfect sense. Tyler was angry because of Sam's interruption when he tried to kill Freddie earlier and had apparently decided that going around taking his anger out on anyone who crossed his path was actually a good idea. Sam knew very well how that logic worked from her first three months as a vampire, since she had had a few killing sprees of her own when she had her humanity off.

Just as that train of thought crossed her mind, she suddenly realized something. Tyler had indeed lost his chance to kill Freddie earlier that night thanks to Sam's intervention, but now that he was on a killing spree, nothing was stopping him from trying again.

Sam froze in her spot, her eyes widening slightly for a moment. "I'd better go downstairs," she announced, earning confused looks from both Melanie and Kyle. "If Tyler is really in a killing spree because I pissed him off, nothing is stopping from going after Freddie again," she explained, worry clear in her voice. "I haven't seen him in over an hour now. I'd better go check on him to see if he's fine."

Melanie nodded lightly in response, understanding suddenly clear in her features. "Yeah, and I think it's best that you get away from all this blood right now, anyway," she told her sister. "We'll take it from here."

Sam nodded in response, silently accepting her sister's words, and after sending one last hungry glance over at the still covered in blood bite mark on the dead man's neck, she turned on her heel and walked away, making her way back to the party.

"Oh, and Sam!" Melanie's voice made Sam spin around once more. "Be careful."

Sam nodded once again, thanking her sister wordlessly, before disappearing from sight in the end of the hallway.

**Melanie Puckett**

"What's her deal?" Kyle asked Melanie as soon as Sam was out of sight, frowning slightly.

Melanie frowned as well as she turned to him. "What do you mean?" she asked.

Kyle shrugged lightly. "Her going to check on Maggie's cousin?" he asked, his confusion clear on his face. "That doesn't sound like something she would do."

Melanie hesitated for a brief moment before responding, wondering if she should really tell Kyle about her sister's little predicament. She thought about it for a moment, hesitating, but ended up realizing that the others would find out about it soon enough, anyway. And also, for some reason, she just couldn't make herself lie to Kyle. "Well, he and Sam were best friends back when she was still human," she explained, "But he had no idea what happened to me and Sam one year ago."

"So that was why he kept staring at you that way back when Maggie introduced you two?" Kyle asked. "Because he thought you were Sam?"

Melanie shook her head in response. "No, he knew it was me," she told him. "I also knew him before I turned, but we weren't exactly friends. I actually only saw him twice."

She looked away for a moment, smiling lightly as she suddenly remembered the night she and Freddie had gone out on a date, and how Freddie had freaked out and run out of the club right after she kissed him on the dance floor, since back then he had still been sure that she was actually her sister in disguise.

The second time they'd met had been about a year after the first time. Melanie had gone visit Sam and her mother once again and was getting ready to leave the Shays' apartment with Carly and Sam to go to the shopping mall, which had become some kind of habit of theirs whenever she visited Seattle.

Just as the three girls had been about to leave, though, the front door of the apartment had been pushed open and none other than Freddie walked inside.

"_Hey, Carly, can I go up to the iCarly studio for a second to install this—" Freddie had been looking down at whatever device he had been holding, which was exactly why it took him so long to realize that there were more people in the room than he had been expecting to see._

_His eyes found Sam first, but then his gaze rested upon the other Puckett twin. His eyes widened in shock, and he seemed to have lost his ability to speak for a moment._

"_You… I… How…" He shook his head lightly, as if trying to organize his thoughts as he looked back and forth between Sam and Melanie._

"_Hello, Freddie," Melanie began with a smile, deciding to speak up. "I'm Melanie."_

It had taken Freddie hours to finally break out of his shocked state. Apparently, Sam had actually told Freddie that Melanie wasn't real during the twin's last visit, so his reaction to suddenly seeing Melanie standing right before his eyes wasn't surprising at all. Soon, though, he finally accepted Melanie as a real human being and even apologized to her for the way he had acted during their date the last time she was in town.

Melanie also remembered that her sister had been greatly freaked out when Melanie told her that she had kissed Freddie, and at the time, Melanie had assumed Sam just didn't want Freddie to think that she was the one who had kissed him, but just recently Melanie realized that her sister's angry reaction to the kiss had actually been out of jealousy.

Melanie chuckled lowly at those memories. "Sam told him the truth right after Tyler tried to kill him," she went on, looking back at Kyle. "But she's worried that if Tyler really went on a killing spree, he might have gone after Freddie again." Kyle raised his eyebrows at that, as if he knew there was more to it. Melanie hesitated for a moment, before sighing in defeat as she reminded herself that he'd probably find out about it sooner or later, anyway. "And she's pretty much still in love with him."

Kyle's brows instantly went up, his eyes widening just slightly. "Wow," he replied, looking greatly surprised. He was silent for a long moment, clearly having trouble with processing what he had just heard. "Sam is in love. I really did not see that one coming," he told Melanie, chuckling lightly.

Melanie shook her head and rolled her eyes at him. "Why do you seem so surprised?" she asked.

Kyle shrugged lightly in response. "I don't know," he said. "I guess I just did not see that coming, that's all. It's kind of hard to believe, to be honest, but it makes sense, I guess." He remained silent for a moment as he looked down, before suddenly speaking up again. "And… What about you?" he asked, his voice low and slightly hesitant.

"What about me?" Melanie asked, frowning at him.

Kyle hesitated for a moment before responding, as if he was debating something inside his head. "Did you also leave someone behind like Sam left Freddie?" he asked, finally looking back up at Melanie. There was something odd about his tone of voice, but Melanie couldn't tell exactly what it was.

"No," Melanie replied, shaking her head lightly. "I mean, I was never the kind of girl guys drooled over, anyway," she explained, shrugging her shoulders lightly. "And the ones I was interested in just never responded to my feelings," she added, looking deep into his eyes, as if hoping he might understand the actual meaning behind her words. Pushing that last thought away, she forced herself to ask, "Why do you ask?"

"Oh, uh…" Kyle looked back down at the carpet, as though avoiding Melanie's curious gaze. He shook his head lightly as he responded, "No reason."

Melanie narrowed her eyes at him, as if it would help her somehow figure out what was going through his head in that moment, but she just couldn't quite figure that one out. She was about to speak up again, when the sound of something breaking in the distance made them both turn their heads in the direction of the sound.

They exchanged a brief curious glance, before Melanie spoke up.

"I'll go check it out," she announced, before gesturing to the dead man Kyle was still carrying over his shoulder and adding, "Take him to wherever you, Ryan and Katelyn are keeping the others."

Kyle didn't seem happy with her suggestion. "No," he said, and even though his tone was the complete opposite of harsh, his voice was still firm. "_I _will go check it out," he told her. "You go find Ryan and Katelyn."

"What?" Melanie asked, exasperated. She could honestly not believe what she was hearing; he just couldn't be serious. "Why?"

"Because," the dark-haired vampire began, "I have a feeling that whatever that was, Tyler has something to do with it."

"I can take care of myself, Kyle," Melanie told him, rolling her eyes in an obviously annoyed manor. Did he really see her as some fragile little girl who was completely helpless and unprotected when it came to dangerous situations? She was a _vampire_; her days of being human were long since gone, but was he not aware of that?

"I know you can," Kyle told her, his voice a lot calmer than before. "But can you seriously see yourself winning a fight against Tyler?" Before Melanie could respond, he added, "He's older than you, and that means stronger. Even Ryan might not be able to overpower Tyler, let alone you or Sam."

Melanie breathed in deeply, taking in his words. She wanted more than anything to just tell him that he was wrong and that she could handle Tyler in a fight just fine, but she knew that if she ever said that, she would be lying. Kyle did have a point, even if she didn't want to admit it.

What really intrigued her, however, was just how worried for her safety Kyle seemed to be in that moment. Was it really just because she was one of his closest friends and he was just looking out for her, just like she did for all the people she cared about, or could there be some other reason behind his actions?

"Fine," she said, giving in with a sigh. "But why can't I go with you?"

"Well, someone needs to get him away from here as soon as possible." He gestured to the lifeless body he was carrying with his head.

Melanie still hesitated for a moment, but she ended up agreeing to do what he was asking. "Okay," she sighed, her annoyance clear in both her voice and face.

Kyle smiled lightly at her. "Good," he said, before carefully transferring the corpse to the other vampire's shoulder, who held the dead man's body in place without even a tiny bit of effort.

But just as Kyle was about to take off in the direction of the mysterious sound they had just heard, Melanie stopped him.

"Hey," she said, her voice low and just a tiny bit shy. She hadn't meant for the word to come out so weakly, but it wasn't like she had any control over it. "Be careful."

Kyle simply nodded in response, before taking off in a blur, soon vanishing from sight, which left Melanie standing alone in the center of the hallway as she tried to understand what the hell had just happened.

She stood there for a moment, simply eyeing the spot where Kyle had just vanished in the end of the hallway as she fought the urge to go after him. There had been something in Kyle's eyes that she had found herself unable to understand, and she wondered what other reasons Kyle might have had behind what he had said to her.

Soon, though, Melanie came to the conclusion that simply standing there wouldn't get her anywhere. With a sigh, the blonde vampire spun around as she began to slowly make her way through the mansion hallways, looking for any sign of Ryan or Katelyn.

**Jorge Puckett**

Tyler's grip around Jorge's throat was suddenly gone, and Jorge wrapped both his hands around the piece of wood as he slowly sank to the ground, his back still pressed against the wall right behind him for support. He gritted his teeth tightly together at the horrible pain coming from the wound in his abdomen as he felt his own hot blood covering his skin and soaking his shirt.

Jorge looked up at Tyler with nothing but pure hatred in his eyes, only to find the vampire watching him with a triumphant smirk on his lips. He wasn't going to kill Jorge quickly like the human had imagined he would; he wanted to watch Jorge die slowly and painfully, no matter just how sick and twisted that sounded.

In a moment, Tyler was just standing there, but in the other, he was lying on the floor several feet away, his hands clutching something that apparently had been driven into his side as he groaned lowly in pain. At first, Jorge was completely confused by the sudden change in the scene unraveling right before his eyes, but when someone suddenly kneeled down right in front of him, their blue eyes showing nothing but pure worry as they eyed his bloody and surely deadly wound, he finally understood what was going on, even though it was pretty hard for him to entirely believe it.

Sam had probably driven one of the pieces of wood from the now destroyed wooden door into Tyler's side, catching him completely off guard, since he had obviously been pretty distracted as he watched Jorge's slow and painful death, and had somehow pushed him with so much strength that the murderous vampire ended up flying several feet down the hallway.

"Sam…" Jorge whispered, eyeing the blonde vampire in front of him as tears began to form in his eyes. There was just so much he wanted to say to her and the others, but now he would never get the chance to do so. He knew he probably didn't have more than five minutes left before the wound in his abdomen took the best of him, so he knew he had to act fast. "I…"

"Don't speak," Sam told him, silencing him abruptly, and without any kind of warning, she wrapped both her hands around the piece of wood that was still buried in his flesh and mercilessly pulled it out, earning a loud groan in pain from Jorge's part.

Her father frowned at her, trying to understand what she was doing, and his eyes widened in surprise when her face suddenly changed the exact same way Tyler's had just a few moments earlier. He stared at her red eyes and the black veins on her skin with clear shock in his features, until Sam pulled her upper lip back, which allowed Jorge to have a clear view of her fangs for just a brief moment, before she quickly raised her right arm and buried her fangs into the skin of her own wrist without any hesitation.

Jorge had no idea what she was doing until she suddenly let go of her wrist and pressed it lightly against his lips.

"You have to drink," she told him in the same urgent tone of voice she had used earlier. Jorge hesitated, though, eyeing her with clear exasperation in his eyes. What the hell was she doing? "It'll heal you!" Sam added when she noticed the clear doubt in his eyes, her tone suddenly even more urgent and desperate than before.

Jorge still hesitated for a brief moment, but he ended up parting his lips slightly, which allowed a small amount of her blood to slip into his mouth. The feeling of his daughter's blood flowing out of her skin and down his throat was extremely foreign to him and unlike anything else he had ever experienced. Her blood tasted a lot differently from what he had expected it to, and he could only blame that on the fact that vampire blood was probably a lot different than human blood.

Sam pulled her wrist back without any kind of warning, suddenly breaking Jorge out of his trance. Nothing happened for a moment, but after a few seconds, a tingling sensation began in the exact same place where the piece of wood had penetrated his skin.

"It's healing," Jorge said as he looked down at his fast-healing wound, amazed by the fact that vampire blood apparently had some sort of healing effect on humans. He quickly looked back up, only to find Sam watching him expectantly. "Thank you," he finally said.

Sam didn't respond, but she allowed a shy smile to form or her lips. She was silent for a moment, as if thinking about something, but just as she opened her mouth to speak, a voice echoed through the hallway, breaking both father and daughter from their current trance and making the two turn their attention back to the third occupant of that hallway, who had been momentarily forgotten by the two of them.

"You know," Tyler began as he slowly got back to his feet, and Sam quickly mirrored his actions, her body clearly tense as she readied herself for any kind of attack coming from the other vampire's part. "You're already getting on my nerves."

Sam chuckled humorlessly as her gaze drifted away from Tyler for a second, disbelief clear in her face, but her eyes soon found him again, and her previously disbelieving gaze became a deep glare. "If anyone here is getting on someone's nerves, it's you," she told him, and hearing the girl's harsh tone instantly sent a chill down Jorge's spine. He had to admit that he had never seen his daughter look so threatening before, and he was suddenly reminded of just how dangerous vampires could be. "Do you really have that little self-control?"

Jorge frowned at her comment, unsure of what she was talking about.

Apparently, though, Tyler knew exactly what she'd meant by that, for his eyes narrowed slightly at her words. "Maybe that wouldn't be a problem if everyone would just stop interrupting me whenever I'm trying to have a proper meal," the male vampire replied, his tone threatening, and his words led Jorge to believe that this wasn't the first unfriendly exchange between the two vampires.

"Stop choosing the wrong meals and I will," Sam told him, her tone just as threatening as his. She sounded so confident and strong Jorge couldn't help but compare that version of Sam to the one that had been so helpless against Tyler one year ago. Human Sam might not have stood a single chance against Tyler, but this Sam was a completely different case.

Jorge's heart began to race inside his chest at that realization, for it suddenly became clear to him what would most likely happen next, and he couldn't help but worry about his daughter's safety. Would Sam really try to take on Tyler on her own? And how would that turn out? Was Tyler stronger than her? Did vampires become stronger with age? How much older than Sam was Tyler, anyway? Jorge had never seen two vampires fight before, but considering just how fast and strong those creatures were known to be, he could only assume that the scene would be extremely brutal and violent.

"Well, I suppose I _could _do that," Tyler admitted, though his voice gave away the sarcasm that impregnated his every word, allowing Sam and Jorge to know that he had no intention of actually agreeing with the other vampire. "But you've done nothing but piss me off today, and I'm really tired of you already," he continued. "And I have very little tolerance for those who get in my way." He made a short pause as he eyed Sam, as if waiting for the meaning of his words to truly sink in, glaring at her with his piercing green eyes as he did so. "I gave you a warning, and you chose to ignore it," he added finally. "Now I'll have to do something about that."

And with that, Tyler sprung forward in a blur, his movement way too fast for Jorge's human eyes to properly capture.

* * *

**Author's Note: Be ready for some vamp-fight-action between Sam and Tyler in the next chapter! I wonder how that will turn out... ;)**

**Thank you all so much for reading! =)**

**xxiCarlyFanxx**


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